Disclaimer: I am not Tamora Pierce as you can clearly tell from my
writings. I don't own any of the characters so far, the plot is mine but I
suspect that some things that will be written here may appear in some of
TP's future books.
NOTE! I haven't read Shatterglass, the finale to the Circle Opens quartet. If something I write conflicts with this book please inform me politely.
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Sandry sat weaving in the living room of discipline cottage, Tris reading a book beside her, the others were still abed and the storm outside had become a gale. Rain pounded on the roof and the windows, while strikes of lightening lit up the cottage, closely followed by defining claps of thunder. The door to Briar's room was shut, and had been so since Afya had given the man a drink to cure his poisoning, and left. Sandry was thinking of the man. His face while drawn with pain had been very handsome. She wondered who he was, if he was a mage.
Daja crept down the stairs from her attic bedroom and sat in an armchair across from Tris. She had brought down a large bowl that looked like it was filled with liquid brass. Silently she began to peal more of this substance off her hand. ~What should I make with it next?!~ She though in her mind to her friends. If she had spoken aloud she wouldn't have been heard over the thunder, and rain. This mind speech was just another product of Sandry's spinning their magic together. ~ I haven't made anything since I made the fire proof gloves.~
~No wonder you have so much of it then.~ Tris thought back. ~Why would you need fire proof gloves? The heat doesn't bother you. I've seen you stick your hand right into it and take out a stick of burning hot iron.~
~I made then in Namorn~ Daja told her but dropped the subject. ~Has anyone checked on our guest yet?~
~Lark looked in on him before she went to bed. Maybe we should go and see if he's awake.~ Sandry stood up and streched. She then walked over to Briar's door, Daja and Tris following. She opened the door silently, looking in to see if he was still asleep. He was. Sometime in the night he had kicked all of the covers off himself and they were crumpled in a heap on the floor. The mattress that was supposed to be in a wooden bed frame wasn't. It was on the floor in a corner of the room, and the bed frame had been moved out. ~What a street rat!~ Tris exclaimed in her mind.
~Someone call me?~ Briar's mind voice said jokingly. ~Where are you?~
~In here,~ Daja replied. ~Your room.~ Briar walked through the door. Sandry knelt down to take the man's temperature.
~Briar can you make some willowbark tea? Being out in the rain for so long had given him quite a fever.~ Briar walked right back out of the room , and returned shortly carrying a pot of the strong tasting tea. He poured a cup and handed it to Sandry who eased open the man's mouth and poured some of the hot liquid in. She waited for him to swallow before pouring another sip, and did that until the cup was empty. ~Tris can you get a cool breeze moving in here? It might help to cool him down.~ Tris went to the window and opened it, reaching out with her magic she grabbed a stream of wind and shoved it into the room, then quickly went to open the door a crack so that the air would continue to blow through.
~Who do you reckon He is?~ Daja asked, looking at him.
~Someone just passing through? Maybe He's a new initiate. Or a messenger.~ Tris thought. ~We should go. If he wakes up later he'll come out.~ The others nodded and walked out of the room silently, closing the door partially behind them.
Lark was in the kitchen making breakfast. "Why don't you come and set the table Sandry." She called over a clap of thunder. "Briar, Tris, Daja come and get the fruit, milk and honey out of the icebox."
The did as they were told and soon everyone was sitting around the table spooning porridge, honey, and milk into their bowls.
"Briar what am I going to do today?" Evvy whined. "I need something new to do! Rosethorn even said that my letters were good."
Briar put his hand to his head. ~Uhh students!~ He thought to the others. They all knew what he meant. "I'll take you down to the cliffs later and you can tell me what types of rocks you find. Then we'll meditate." Evvy groaned at that. "We didn't do it yesterday we have to do it today."
"We'll join you." Sandry said looking at Pasco.
"I will as well." Said Tris.
"I'm going to go out to the practice yards and do staff fighting with Jory, she doesn't meditate like we do. Perhaps Nia would like to join you." Niamara nodded happily and continued to eat her porridge.
Sandry heard a creaking noise to her right and turned to see the young man awake and holding his head as he stood leaning against the door frame to Briar's room.
"Ahh you've finally awaken. Would you care for something to eat? We have porridge, and fruit, but if you would like something else I can have someone run to the hub to get it." Lark offered.
"Porridge is fine thank you." He said in a hoarse voice. Sitting he guzzled down a glass of water that Tris handed to him. "Thank you." Briar watched the man eat. The manner in which he did so seemed so familiar to him. It was the way Briar ate, when he had first come to Discipline. Finishing his breakfast Briar beckoned to Evvy. She followed him into the kitchen with her dishes. "Was your dishes. Then make your bed and clean up as best you can your things in Daja's room." Briar told her. "Come to the workroom, and then we can go down to the cliffs if the rain lets up a bit. I don't want to go near the water when it's that stormy." Evvy nodded.
Briar went into Rosethorn's workroom and started tidying the things on the shelves. Some of the bottles needed new labels so he wrote them out. He also took down four or five large pouches containing seeds, and started measuring out the contents to his protection balls. When that was finished he opened his kit, a brown bag which Sandry had made for him, and put the balls in the front pockets. He stocked up on some more healing medicines that he had made and then fastened the ties in place.
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Nia why don't you go back up to Tris' room and get the pieces to your spice rack. I made you some more nails and your tools are all up there. You have all of the pieces cut out right?" Nia nodded. "Well then why don't you come down here and work on that at the table." Lark, Rosethorn, the new man (whose name the children still didn't know), and Niko who had come just after the man woke up were all talking in Lark's workroom. "Jory you can... Oh! You can plan out dinner for us. Write out what you need, and how you're going to make it. Tomorrow you can go down to the Hub and get the ingredients. Then you can make it for us."
"Pasco can you do the dishes for us?" Sandry asked. Not waiting for an answer they all got up and went up to Daja's room where they found her cleaning. She looked up when they came in, placed her bag on her bed, grabbed the roll of heavy cloth that Sandry had seen her with the day before, and left the room. "So what do you have planned for today?"
"Well Niko is busy with that man. He has to find out what happened and such so I'll probably just read this book he gave me. Plus meditation. Daj'?"
"I'm going to do combat with Jory, like I said, and then I'm headed to the forge. Fire temple needs more nails!" Daja answered.
"I have to bring Pasco back to Yazmin's later. I suppose it shouldn't wait until later but I want to do the meditation with you again. So when I take him I'll have to go back to the Citadel, to see how Uncle is doing." Sandry sighed. "I don't want to go back I want to stay here with you. Though I suppose I cannot. Maybe I'll go down to the cliff with Briar, though what I could teach Pasco down there I have no idea."
Daja stood up. "I should go and check of Niamara, and Jorality." She grabbed her traders staff from the wall left. Tris lay back on Daja's bed and opened her book. Sandry sat there for a moment thinking. She had a strange feeling growing in the pit of her stomach that she couldn't quite explain. Perhaps she was coming down with something. She got up and went to check on Pasco.
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As soon as Sandry had left Tris lay the book down and went to the window. Looking out she noticed that the wind way above her in the sky was moving quickly. Soon the storm would be past. She wanted to go outside and just stand around, letting the rain soak her, calm her. Something was agitating her, what it was she had no idea. If she ran down the stairs and outside quietly no one would know that she had left, and they couldn't follow. Well her teachers couldn't. Briar. Daja, and Sandry would know where she was if they barely thought of the connection between them. She hoped that they were all to busy with their new students to notice. Grabbing her cloak she snuck down the stairs and out into the rain. She didn't know where she wanted to go she just new she needed to be alone. After 5 minutes or so she realized the path she was taking. It was one she travelled often, and it led to a set of stone steps that ascended to the highest part of the wall surrounding the city. This was the path she had left on that day five years ago, during the pirate attack.
Climbing the steps still took her a while. When she had reached the top she looked out over the sea. Water poured down her face, and her hair and clothes were already soaked through but she hardly noticed. Being up there in the middle of a storm was so exhilarating that nearly nothing bothered her. Below the white capped waves crashed on the wall so hard that bits of spray would have been felt if it hadn't been raining.
Tris let all of the uneasy feeling she had been having flow out with the next wave. Doing this cleared her head making her body, and mind calm. She breathed in the scent of home. The smell of the sea, salty with a tinge of fish. She knew that Daja loved the smell of the ocean, and sailing on it. Standing there she could see why. She could also smell the faint smell of cooking meat comming from the basement of the hub where Dedicate Gorse's kitchens were. The merchant girl stood there still looking at the sea for a while longer before returning to the cottage. When she arrived Tris found the door to Lark's workroom still closed. There was no one else around. So she went up to Daja's room, retrieved her book, and settled down in a comfortable chair to read.
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Meanwhile down at the cliff Briar, and Evvy wearing waterproof cloaks were looking around for rock that they could take back and add to Evvy's growing collection. "Look! This is amethyst, but it also has bits of quartz in it!" Evvy exclaimed bringing a piece of stone over to briar. He put it in the small bag he was carrying and continued to look on the ground.
"What about this one?" He asked knowing it was Limestone. She answered correctly and he put into the bag also.
"Hey Briar what's this?" She asked picking up a small piece of stone. As he looked over at it he could tell it wasn't simply a rock. It glowed with white light, indicating its magical properties. He took it from her, trying not to focus on the magic, to look at the stone itself.
"I've never seen this before. We should go back up to discipline and show Niko. It could be dangerous. Wrapping the rock in cloth he put it in his pocket and hurried back to Discipline to get out of the rain.
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A/N: Oh no! You know what I realized when I was writing this chapter? Nia and Jory probably wouldn't have come with Daja would they? I mean they have other teachers. I don't remember... Do their teachers have magic? Or are they like Yazmin? Don't yell at me! I only read Cold Fire once! And all the others like 4 times!! Well anyway I reviewed again! Aren't I amazing? Lol so I know that this chapter isn't really exciting and I'm sorry but I think I had to put it in to move the story alone. The next one will be more exciting... I hope:S
NOTE! I haven't read Shatterglass, the finale to the Circle Opens quartet. If something I write conflicts with this book please inform me politely.
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Sandry sat weaving in the living room of discipline cottage, Tris reading a book beside her, the others were still abed and the storm outside had become a gale. Rain pounded on the roof and the windows, while strikes of lightening lit up the cottage, closely followed by defining claps of thunder. The door to Briar's room was shut, and had been so since Afya had given the man a drink to cure his poisoning, and left. Sandry was thinking of the man. His face while drawn with pain had been very handsome. She wondered who he was, if he was a mage.
Daja crept down the stairs from her attic bedroom and sat in an armchair across from Tris. She had brought down a large bowl that looked like it was filled with liquid brass. Silently she began to peal more of this substance off her hand. ~What should I make with it next?!~ She though in her mind to her friends. If she had spoken aloud she wouldn't have been heard over the thunder, and rain. This mind speech was just another product of Sandry's spinning their magic together. ~ I haven't made anything since I made the fire proof gloves.~
~No wonder you have so much of it then.~ Tris thought back. ~Why would you need fire proof gloves? The heat doesn't bother you. I've seen you stick your hand right into it and take out a stick of burning hot iron.~
~I made then in Namorn~ Daja told her but dropped the subject. ~Has anyone checked on our guest yet?~
~Lark looked in on him before she went to bed. Maybe we should go and see if he's awake.~ Sandry stood up and streched. She then walked over to Briar's door, Daja and Tris following. She opened the door silently, looking in to see if he was still asleep. He was. Sometime in the night he had kicked all of the covers off himself and they were crumpled in a heap on the floor. The mattress that was supposed to be in a wooden bed frame wasn't. It was on the floor in a corner of the room, and the bed frame had been moved out. ~What a street rat!~ Tris exclaimed in her mind.
~Someone call me?~ Briar's mind voice said jokingly. ~Where are you?~
~In here,~ Daja replied. ~Your room.~ Briar walked through the door. Sandry knelt down to take the man's temperature.
~Briar can you make some willowbark tea? Being out in the rain for so long had given him quite a fever.~ Briar walked right back out of the room , and returned shortly carrying a pot of the strong tasting tea. He poured a cup and handed it to Sandry who eased open the man's mouth and poured some of the hot liquid in. She waited for him to swallow before pouring another sip, and did that until the cup was empty. ~Tris can you get a cool breeze moving in here? It might help to cool him down.~ Tris went to the window and opened it, reaching out with her magic she grabbed a stream of wind and shoved it into the room, then quickly went to open the door a crack so that the air would continue to blow through.
~Who do you reckon He is?~ Daja asked, looking at him.
~Someone just passing through? Maybe He's a new initiate. Or a messenger.~ Tris thought. ~We should go. If he wakes up later he'll come out.~ The others nodded and walked out of the room silently, closing the door partially behind them.
Lark was in the kitchen making breakfast. "Why don't you come and set the table Sandry." She called over a clap of thunder. "Briar, Tris, Daja come and get the fruit, milk and honey out of the icebox."
The did as they were told and soon everyone was sitting around the table spooning porridge, honey, and milk into their bowls.
"Briar what am I going to do today?" Evvy whined. "I need something new to do! Rosethorn even said that my letters were good."
Briar put his hand to his head. ~Uhh students!~ He thought to the others. They all knew what he meant. "I'll take you down to the cliffs later and you can tell me what types of rocks you find. Then we'll meditate." Evvy groaned at that. "We didn't do it yesterday we have to do it today."
"We'll join you." Sandry said looking at Pasco.
"I will as well." Said Tris.
"I'm going to go out to the practice yards and do staff fighting with Jory, she doesn't meditate like we do. Perhaps Nia would like to join you." Niamara nodded happily and continued to eat her porridge.
Sandry heard a creaking noise to her right and turned to see the young man awake and holding his head as he stood leaning against the door frame to Briar's room.
"Ahh you've finally awaken. Would you care for something to eat? We have porridge, and fruit, but if you would like something else I can have someone run to the hub to get it." Lark offered.
"Porridge is fine thank you." He said in a hoarse voice. Sitting he guzzled down a glass of water that Tris handed to him. "Thank you." Briar watched the man eat. The manner in which he did so seemed so familiar to him. It was the way Briar ate, when he had first come to Discipline. Finishing his breakfast Briar beckoned to Evvy. She followed him into the kitchen with her dishes. "Was your dishes. Then make your bed and clean up as best you can your things in Daja's room." Briar told her. "Come to the workroom, and then we can go down to the cliffs if the rain lets up a bit. I don't want to go near the water when it's that stormy." Evvy nodded.
Briar went into Rosethorn's workroom and started tidying the things on the shelves. Some of the bottles needed new labels so he wrote them out. He also took down four or five large pouches containing seeds, and started measuring out the contents to his protection balls. When that was finished he opened his kit, a brown bag which Sandry had made for him, and put the balls in the front pockets. He stocked up on some more healing medicines that he had made and then fastened the ties in place.
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Nia why don't you go back up to Tris' room and get the pieces to your spice rack. I made you some more nails and your tools are all up there. You have all of the pieces cut out right?" Nia nodded. "Well then why don't you come down here and work on that at the table." Lark, Rosethorn, the new man (whose name the children still didn't know), and Niko who had come just after the man woke up were all talking in Lark's workroom. "Jory you can... Oh! You can plan out dinner for us. Write out what you need, and how you're going to make it. Tomorrow you can go down to the Hub and get the ingredients. Then you can make it for us."
"Pasco can you do the dishes for us?" Sandry asked. Not waiting for an answer they all got up and went up to Daja's room where they found her cleaning. She looked up when they came in, placed her bag on her bed, grabbed the roll of heavy cloth that Sandry had seen her with the day before, and left the room. "So what do you have planned for today?"
"Well Niko is busy with that man. He has to find out what happened and such so I'll probably just read this book he gave me. Plus meditation. Daj'?"
"I'm going to do combat with Jory, like I said, and then I'm headed to the forge. Fire temple needs more nails!" Daja answered.
"I have to bring Pasco back to Yazmin's later. I suppose it shouldn't wait until later but I want to do the meditation with you again. So when I take him I'll have to go back to the Citadel, to see how Uncle is doing." Sandry sighed. "I don't want to go back I want to stay here with you. Though I suppose I cannot. Maybe I'll go down to the cliff with Briar, though what I could teach Pasco down there I have no idea."
Daja stood up. "I should go and check of Niamara, and Jorality." She grabbed her traders staff from the wall left. Tris lay back on Daja's bed and opened her book. Sandry sat there for a moment thinking. She had a strange feeling growing in the pit of her stomach that she couldn't quite explain. Perhaps she was coming down with something. She got up and went to check on Pasco.
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As soon as Sandry had left Tris lay the book down and went to the window. Looking out she noticed that the wind way above her in the sky was moving quickly. Soon the storm would be past. She wanted to go outside and just stand around, letting the rain soak her, calm her. Something was agitating her, what it was she had no idea. If she ran down the stairs and outside quietly no one would know that she had left, and they couldn't follow. Well her teachers couldn't. Briar. Daja, and Sandry would know where she was if they barely thought of the connection between them. She hoped that they were all to busy with their new students to notice. Grabbing her cloak she snuck down the stairs and out into the rain. She didn't know where she wanted to go she just new she needed to be alone. After 5 minutes or so she realized the path she was taking. It was one she travelled often, and it led to a set of stone steps that ascended to the highest part of the wall surrounding the city. This was the path she had left on that day five years ago, during the pirate attack.
Climbing the steps still took her a while. When she had reached the top she looked out over the sea. Water poured down her face, and her hair and clothes were already soaked through but she hardly noticed. Being up there in the middle of a storm was so exhilarating that nearly nothing bothered her. Below the white capped waves crashed on the wall so hard that bits of spray would have been felt if it hadn't been raining.
Tris let all of the uneasy feeling she had been having flow out with the next wave. Doing this cleared her head making her body, and mind calm. She breathed in the scent of home. The smell of the sea, salty with a tinge of fish. She knew that Daja loved the smell of the ocean, and sailing on it. Standing there she could see why. She could also smell the faint smell of cooking meat comming from the basement of the hub where Dedicate Gorse's kitchens were. The merchant girl stood there still looking at the sea for a while longer before returning to the cottage. When she arrived Tris found the door to Lark's workroom still closed. There was no one else around. So she went up to Daja's room, retrieved her book, and settled down in a comfortable chair to read.
~*~ ~*~ ~*~ ~*~ ~*~ ~*~ ~*~ ~*~ ~*~ ~*~ ~*~ ~*~ ~*~ ~*~ ~*~ ~*~ ~*~ ~*~ ~*~ ~*~ ~*~
Meanwhile down at the cliff Briar, and Evvy wearing waterproof cloaks were looking around for rock that they could take back and add to Evvy's growing collection. "Look! This is amethyst, but it also has bits of quartz in it!" Evvy exclaimed bringing a piece of stone over to briar. He put it in the small bag he was carrying and continued to look on the ground.
"What about this one?" He asked knowing it was Limestone. She answered correctly and he put into the bag also.
"Hey Briar what's this?" She asked picking up a small piece of stone. As he looked over at it he could tell it wasn't simply a rock. It glowed with white light, indicating its magical properties. He took it from her, trying not to focus on the magic, to look at the stone itself.
"I've never seen this before. We should go back up to discipline and show Niko. It could be dangerous. Wrapping the rock in cloth he put it in his pocket and hurried back to Discipline to get out of the rain.
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A/N: Oh no! You know what I realized when I was writing this chapter? Nia and Jory probably wouldn't have come with Daja would they? I mean they have other teachers. I don't remember... Do their teachers have magic? Or are they like Yazmin? Don't yell at me! I only read Cold Fire once! And all the others like 4 times!! Well anyway I reviewed again! Aren't I amazing? Lol so I know that this chapter isn't really exciting and I'm sorry but I think I had to put it in to move the story alone. The next one will be more exciting... I hope:S