Chapter Seven – A Curious Mistake
Zelda Black nursed her glass of red wine as she nervously allowed herself to lean back in her leather chair, she observed the chaotic clutter that decorated her mahogany desk and had no idea where to possibly begin. Zelda sighed and massaged her aching neck, stressed at the prospect of attempting to organise and categorise her work, she realised that sooner rather than later, she would have to employ a secretary or personal assistant to help maintain patient records, reports and correspondence between patient's places of employment and the guild or risk falling behind or being buried alive under the mountain of paperwork that came hand in hand with her job.
She sipped the wine and eventually found a place to rest the glass on the desk, she adjusted her reading glasses then attempted to sort the documents however Zelda was unsuccessful as she found herself reading the same sentence of a letter but her mind was unable to make sense and instead simply gave up.
Zelda could feel a headache beginning to form and closed her eyes, slowly she focused on her breathing, slowly inhaling through her nose then a brief pause and exhaling through her mouth.
A forceful knock at the front door demanded her immediate attention and Zelda blinked several times in order to regain her focus. The antique grandfather clock sounded somewhere and as Zelda made her way to the front door, she counted the heavy chimes. It was late at night and she was not expecting any visitors.
Cautiously, Zelda unbolted the heavy oak door, poised with her casting fingers should she need to defend herself and slowly pulled open the door, "Hello?" she called, "Who's there?"
"Me," rasped a voice, "I have it!"
Zelda relaxed slightly and exhaled with relief then opened the door further, she forced herself to smile and not appear hostile. Her eyes widened at the sight of a leather satchel then back to the mysterious figure, whose identity remained hidden from her inquisitive stare.
"This was extremely difficult to acquire…I had to do things…"
Zelda nodded, "I was told you were…are the best! I appreciate this and I hope that this," she revealed an inconspicuous container, "Will reflect my gratitude…"
Zelda gulped the remainder of her wine as she anticipated the need for 'Dutch courage' before she opened the average beige folder which had been concealed in the leather satchel.
She suddenly felt anxious, her intuition had never before been wrong nor failed her which is why Zelda had taken it upon herself to conduct her own research regarding the two latest patients that had been ordered to see her, Mistress Heckitty Broomhead and Mistress Constance Hardbroom however, these names and their prestigious reputation meant that Zelda could not simply waltz into the archives of the witches guild and access their personal records or simply question staff that could help with her own personal investigation but also, there was the worrying fact that prior to her session with Constance Hardbroom, Zelda had been unable to find any personal records although after several weeks of persistence, Zelda was granted access to the main archives and in all likelihood found an explanation as to why she was unable to acquire a personal file on her patient.
The archives records were housed in the oldest and deepest part of the building which seemed to be in a desperate state of neglect and clearly was not top of the list for funding, staffing and upgrading according to the guild, whose budget was stretched beyond its limits already.
Zelda smiled to herself when she discovered the archives categorized everything into alphabetical order and speedily she raced towards the shelves labelled as 'H' but felt her heart sank with disappointment as a wooden support beam had fallen and therefore destroying several shelves and obstructed the rest of the corridor. A powerful containment spell prevented the further spread of dry rot and a black spore fungus which rapidly corroded the surrounding area, the guild would need to find a place to temporary rehouse entire archives while extensive work to eliminate the dry rot and fungus before the designs of a much needed upgrade on the archive could begin.
Zelda furiously paced her office as she fought to maintain her usual calm demeanour however the contents of the seemingly average folder caused her temper to spiral out of control, Zelda had only herself to blame for making such an error in judgement.
Her casting hand twitched as she mentally chastised herself for her foolish mistake. A mist eclipsed her sight, unable to think rationally and struck a vase which exploded, systematically Zelda destroyed the precious ornaments that decorated her office until her exhausted body collapsed onto the wooden floor. Her chest heaved for oxygen and despite her silent protest, her eyes heavily closed.
Zelda recovered from depleting her energy in a vicious outburst that had left her office in complete disarray. She forced herself off the wooden floor where she had collapsed and showered, the warm water that cleansed the exhaustion and alcohol from her body, did nothing to help relax her racing thoughts as she faced a conundrum
"What do I do, now?"