February 1070
The next day, I had a few, call it "housekeeping" items to take care of. First off, once lessons were done, I pulled out a plain, irregularly shaped block of wood and set it in front of Eva. She glanced down at it, furrowed her brow, and looked back up at me.
"I've been told that there is a sort of magical district down in London selling… I didn't actually ask about that," I said. "But books and messenger owls are included, and besides those I can't think of much else you could buy beyond materials and components made to the level of precision magic usually demands." I shook my head. "I plan to go there once spring rolls around, so in around a month and a half to two months."
Eva started to look tentatively hopeful and excited.
"Now this," I said, tapping the block of wood, "is a test. If, by the time I'm preparing to leave, you've managed to completely transfigure this block of wood into another material and kept it wholly in that state for three hours, I'll take you along. And if we're lucky, maybe something related to wand or staff-making will be available and we'll get you started on a focus."
In that moment, Eva looked like a girl that had just been told she could have a pony: wide eyes, bright smile, twitching from excitement. Then, a few seconds later, she started to look like a girl that had just realized what dealing with a pony actually meant, and her expression partially fell, and she looked back down at the block. "I… don't know how to do that. You haven't had me work on anything like this."
"That's why it's a test, and why you have time," I said. "Don't worry, you'll figure it out."
Though I sounded confident, the truth is I had no clue if she could actually manage this. I'd brushed up on the Transfiguration texts Rowena had provided so I could so I could nurture Eva's talent, but I'd run into what I might call a mental block. I could reshape certain materials and items easily enough, especially with a touch of soulfire, but full on Transfiguration, something like wood into iron? That was tougher for me. Even though I knew material Transfiguration should work, Helga and Eva were direct examples of that, my mind just kept trying to calculate how much energy a transformation "should" take and making my efforts wildly inefficient. In essence, the kind of Transfiguration Eva seemed to really be talented with, I couldn't do.
Now, that wasn't inherently a problem; Molly had been good with psychomancy and verisimilomancy and fine, precise work where I really hadn't been, and I'd still managed to teach her. But as with Molly, I just didn't know how to judge Eva's progress in that discipline.
Thus, the block of wood. I wanted to see how she approached it, how she broke down the task into steps, did the research and practice, and so on. That, I could critique and inform and help with. And it would give me a way to check if my mental barometer regarding Transfiguration was accurate; if Eva took most of the two months to do it, then I could assume it was roughly accurate and just keep escalating in terms of difficult projects. If she finished it inside a week or two, I'd need to recalibrate.
"Will it just be you and Eva going to London?" Elfleda asked.
"If Eva's successful, I'm thinking of maybe bringing Cuthbert along, with maybe a few guards as well. I don't know if he needs anything right now, but London's a major city so I'm sure he can find something of interest there."
Elfleda just coughed.
"Oh. Well, uh," I said, hesitant now that I guessed her meaning. "It would be kind of a big thing to take you… anywhere, really."
"By now, the entire town thinks we're courting," Elfleda pointed out. "This wouldn't change matters in that regard."
"I…" I sighed.
Partially, I didn't want to bring Elfleda along because Rowena was going to be there and I could see how that could get awkward, fast. But even more so, it just… seemed like a date. And not just a "pop down to the coffee shop for a chat" kind of date, but a road trip, a shopping road trip. That would be like taking her to Burger King.
I don't think I'm ready for the level of commitment that implies.
"Sorry," I said, shaking my head. "Not this time."
Elfleda let out a long sigh and folded her hands together. "Very well."
The tension in the air started to grow uncomfortable, so I moved on to the next topic. "Eva, about your Latin lessons, I think I've found a solution. Or at least an easier, more consistent way to practice."
"Yes?" she asked.
"Previously, I was hesitant to ask John for help just because I didn't know what his reaction would be and there's not really a subtle way to broach the question of 'can you teach my apprentice' without him figuring everything out. But after recent events, I think there's enough goodwill and understanding there that I can get his help and have him keep things secret. But that's not entirely my decision to make. Are you fine with me telling John you're a witch and asking him to take over teaching you Latin?"
"I… yes?" Eva said, sounding like she didn't understand why I was asking. "He's kind and nice. But why do you need to tell him I'm a witch."
"John is an intelligent man," Elfleda said. "And Latin is a language that is rarely spread beyond the Church. There are only so many reasons behind why Harry would ask him to teach you Latin, and they all relate to you being his apprentice in some form. And since you are not martially inclined and thus not the ideal fit for Harry's Fellowship, that leaves only one conclusion: he's teaching you magic."
"Fellowship?" Eva asked.
"The Fellowship of Saint Giles," Elfleda said.
"I don't know what that is," Eva replied.
Elfleda turned to look at me with a curious expression.
"It's never come up," I said. "And to be entirely honest, I sort of… fudged there. I wasn't sure how I'd be received so I erred on the side of looking like I was affiliated with the Church."
"So there is no monastic Fellowship of Jedi roaming the lands protecting them from evil?" Elfleda asked.
"No."
"That's disappointing," she said. "Perhaps you should fix that."
"Uhh… how?" I asked.
"Make your lie the truth. Start training people in earnest."
"I'll have to think about that," I said.
"Hmm. While we are on the subject of John, I'm curious how you'll explain my involvement," she asked.
"Well, there's no real way to hide that you know about Eva. Like you said, John's smart, he can put two and two together. So the only question is do you want me to hide the fact that you're a practitioner, or not."
"How much do you trust John to be discreet in this matter?" she asked.
"I would say very," I said. "Definitely very." Really, the fact that John was involved with the side of the Church that dealt with the Denarians was more reassuring than any personal assurances he gave me. It meant that he was trusted to deal with the magical WMDs that were the Fallen, and while the Church's judgment wasn't perfect – case in point, Cerdic – my own experience with John led me to believe him as trustworthy.
"In that case, you can inform him, perhaps convince him to include me as well. I'd rather like to read those texts on magic you have."
I nodded, relieved. "That's something I can do." I got up from my chair and pushed it in towards the table. "So let's go."
I didn't visit the castle often, not because it was far away – it was a few minutes' walk at most – but because there just wasn't much for me to do there. Mostly, I just went to talk with John or Robert or make sure Cuthbert wasn't in over his head. Last I saw, he was busy navigating the tumultuous world of teenage girls trying to court him, with Eva and Elfleda's dubious assistance.
Ah, right, I completely forgot to mention Eadric. He was gone when I came back from the draugr; presumably, since Cuthbert was still at court, Robert hadn't brought them along and so Eadric went back home.
Back to the present: after locking up the house and feeding Shadowfax, I trudged through the snow-filled streets towards the castle along with Eva and Elfleda, eyeing the few unlucky souls stuck patrolling the walls during winter with some pity. It wasn't even that necessary, really; the castle wasn't part of the walls that surrounded the town, and since Berkhamsted was a good distance away from any disputed territories and the coast, it wasn't like it needed to be guarded that heavily.
Rather than split off and meet John on my own, I figured that since this conversation concerned all of us, we might as well save time and just speak to John as a group. So, after some questioning to learn where he was, we all headed off to the castle library.
When I walked in, John looked up from the book he had been reading, and raised his eyebrows when he saw Eva and Elfleda follow me in. As I dragged a chair over to sit across from him, John slowly closed his book and put it aside before looking at all of us.
"Yes?" he asked.
"After some thought, I've decided that there is something you could help me with," I said. "I'd like you to teach Eva and Elfleda Latin."
John furrowed his brow slightly. "I can certainly do that, but may I ask why?"
"Eva is my apprentice in magic, and Elfleda is… huh." I glanced over my shoulder at her. "Actually I guess she's also my apprentice, technically."
John got a thoughtful look on his face and looked up at Elfleda. "Eva having magic explains a number of inconsistencies surrounding Harry, but you… I'm surprised by."
"Why?" Elfleda asked. "If Harry wasn't so obvious and public about it, what about him would mark him out as a wizard?"
"The temperature, for one," John replied.
Elfleda inclined her head in acknowledgment. "And beyond that? How would you know him, identify him? How would you identify someone subtler and weaker than him?"
"I suppose that is true. Regardless though, I'm surprised," John said. He looked at me. "Are you inducting them into your Fellowship?"
"I suppose, if that's the excuse we need to go with," I said.
"We don't need to go with any excuse. Outside of Robert I am not visited frequently and I greatly doubt anyone will deeply investigate why two young women spend time in a chapel." He briefly glanced past me at Elfleda with a hint of disapproval. "And if they do I am certain others can handle it. I'm merely curious."
I sat back and glanced over my shoulders at Elfleda and Eva. Something in me, the chivalric, chauvinistic side of me, rebelled at the notion of getting them anywhere close to danger. At the same time though, the Fellowship of Saint Giles was a complete fiction; there was no actual organization or pattern or system to it. It was just an excuse I came up with that I could half sell, and then I rolled the Jedi into it as well for my own amusement.
I could make the Fellowship anything I wanted, really, assuming I wanted to make it anything. And I didn't need to make it as an entire order of traveling hotheaded loners like me. What I would make of it I had no clue, but I guess I would figure that out in time.
"I hadn't been planning to, but if they want, sure, why not," I said.