Some more Jowan - emotionally, things should start looking up soon, but this chapter seemed... necessary, somehow.
Morgana finally gets her own "A Memory" chapter - more are planned for the others.
A Memory
Morgana
A dormitory, bathed in the light of the afternoon sun.
The girl, not quite an adolescent but soon to be, heard the bustle as the others pushed and shoved in a crowd to get to the Great Hall and eat. She ignored it, focusing on her hands, pulling up her baggy robe sleeves; a small smile found its way onto her face as she remembered the parts of the Chant about the cleansing power of fire.
She looked up at a loud crash and an exclaimed "Ow!" from the corridor outside. A bookshelf? "Er... Jowan?"
He limped into view, trying to rub his ankle and nearly falling over in the attempt, eventually making it to her bed. He sat down next to her, following her eyes and staring at her hands as she was, frowning. "Wha - ?"
"Just... look," she interrupted, her voice a half-whisper of amazement. She squinted down at her hands for a moment longer, until a small ball of flame appeared in her palm. Her skin remained intact, the flames flickering merrily.
Alarmed, Jowan jumped up, grabbing her bed covers as he did so. "You'll set the room on fire!"
She just shook her head, still smiling calmly, and he seemed to realise that the flames weren't going anywhere - he cautiously sat down on the bed, dropping the quilts, and stared, entranced. "Is it... is it safe?"
She nodded, gesturing for him to hold his hand out; gingerly, he did, wincing. She put her hand to his and gently tipped the flame ball into it - it moved almost like liquid, spilling onto his palm and righting itself. Her smile grew wider as he stared at the flames, enchanted, and soon his face matched hers.
After a little while, he gave her her fire back. "Can you teach me how to do that?"
"Of course." She clicked her fingers and the fire extinguished itself.
He passed her a small flask, and she opened it, sniffing it cautiously. "Is this one of your teas?"
He nodded, smiling proudly.
She was a truly average herbalist, but Jowan seemed to have a gift for it, to the point where she actually trusted his concoctions. She sniffed it, took a sip, and considered for a moment. "Mmm. What does it do?"
"I took half the ingredients from a book, and made up the rest. It's meant to... um..." He looked at something written on his hand, frowned, and then held it up in front of her face. "That."
"Re-juva-nate," she read carefully, then smiled. "Oh." She jumped up from the bed, smelling apple pie and taking him by the hand, not caring about the inevitable jokes from Anders and Markus. Jowan carefully put the mixture down on their bedside table - he was in the bunk above hers - before he followed her.
So they tried their best to walk to the Hall, still holding hands - a gangly boy with robes that only came down to mid-calf and a girl who had to lift the hem of hers so they wouldn't trail on the floor, laughing gently at each other and ignoring the blank steel stares of the templars.