CHAPTER: TWENTY-TWO: LACEY

Lacey hated flowers. She knew that was weird, but she didn't care. She hated flowers. The pollen got everywhere and made her sneeze. They would last for a few days and then fall apart, making a mess. To her, they were far more trouble than they were worth. So she was not happy to wake up in a giant field of yellow chrysanthemums.

Well, 'wake up' is a nice way of putting. She really sneezed herself awake, and continued to sneeze for several minutes before she was able to get her breathing under control. Even so, she was covered in petals and pollen, and that gross nonsense that covers the stems and leaves. The crap that felt very similar to like wax or sap, but it too scratchy to be wax and not sticky enough to be sap, but of course it is just disgusting enough to make Lacey want to shower for a year.

But alas, that wouldn't be possible, for a lot longer than anyone, especially Lacey, would have liked.

Her eyes had been bleary since she opened them. She didn't want to touch them, for fear of getting more pollen in them, making it worse, but man did they itch. Lucky her eyes were flushing the pollen out, slowly, but she knew it was happening. She could feel the water dripping down the side of her face. With every drip down, she could start to see more shapes instead of just colors, but everything was still blurry as hell.

'Move Lace' she could hear Lenny's voice in her mind. 'Get up and move. You know that helps.'

She got to her knees, and would have stood if only she wasn't so dizzy. Not the fault of her allergies, but the fault of moving upright so quickly. She stilled her body, in the hope of stealing her turning mind. She tried and failed to remember how she got there. Wherever 'there' was.

She could remember the old man. Her great uncle or something? Jordan. That was his name. He was related to her somehow, he had the crest of Lancelot after all. But if that was all they had in common Lacey didn't think it would be best to trust him. Lacey hated being related to Lancelot. In the Battalion, Lancelot was considered to be a bad guy, a traitor, and that any and all of his descendants would be considered as such until they could prove otherwise. Lacey had worked far too hard, harder after what happened with her mother, to be considered a traitor.

But Jordan mentioned her father, and of course she needed to hear more. After her father died, Lacey realized how little she truly knew about her father. Lacey was only 5 when it happened, she couldn't remember much, and she never had the chance to ask her father anything important or meaningful, especially since he died so suddenly, and she couldn't ask her mother anything about him, because after he died her mother was….. Well Lacey didn't want to think about that. Even after all these years, Lacey would still jump at any chance to learn about him, all she could really remember was his face, his smile, his laugh, and his voice singing her lullabye. Most of her memories of him had been filled by pictures or the stories people told her, and even with all that, there still wasn't much. A few awards from school and the Battalion, so she knew he was a hard worker, and so she tried to be one too. Other than that, just the kind stories of the senior paladins and level two squires, all of which were fluff pieces about how kind he was and how he would always help anyone and everyone, and he would always do it with a smile. Lacey would try to do the same, but smiling at others and taking with them if she didn't know them was hard for her.

Lacey could finally see, after she had blinked all the tears from her eyes. To her left were flowers as far as she could see, and to her right were…. More flowers. Oh and in front of her were more of the same fucking flowers. She almost didn't want to look behind her and see more of this ocean of flowers, but of course she turned around.

And thank whatever god that be, behind her was well, more flowers, but this time one specific flower caught her eye.

Lacey hated flowers. All kinds, but she wasn't so stupid as to dismiss what could be useful. Her favorite thing after all was researching magic, and because of that she knew that with the right ingredients and incantation, flowers can be extremely useful, and the one that caught her eye was just the type she needed.

Lacey had never seen this type of yellow flowers, but frankly she didn't care. In the sea of yellow that surrounded her, there was one distinct pink, and that was the one that mattered. It was smaller than the others, had far less pedals, and if Lacey thought flowers were pretty, well the yellow ones were far prettier than the sad little pink one, and yet it was so much more important.

Lacey knelt in front of the small pink flower, and cleared out some of the yellow flowers that covered it. She pushed down the grass and stems that were still in the way, making a small clearing, careful not to disturb the one that she needed. Once the area was prepped all Lacey had to do was to crush the flower as she spoke the incantation. Perfectly. One mispronunciation and her intended charm wouldn't be what she cast, but whatever accidental phrase she spoke would be.

And if that wasn't stressful enough, Lacey was also terrible at incantations.

"Well, this is either going to go well," spoke Lacey to herself, "or this is really going to suck."