Prisoner Day 1

"I'm sorry I'm late," Amy said, walking into Astoria's shop.

"No problem," Astoria said from behind the counter, smiling at her. "There was nothing I needed you for. Another late night helping Mr. Ribbon?"

"It was a very interesting experiment," Amy said with a weary smile. A little part of her died inside when she had to lie to Astoria, so she went for evasive when she could. "Do we have Cavan today?"

"No," Astoria said. "Magistrate Medoc didn't think that his duties would distract him too much today. So we have the day to ourselves."

"Well, that will make it easier to check on how Sammy's garden is doing," Amy said, walking over to one of the displays.

"Oh, is it still in bad straits after that storm?" Astoria asked.

"Yeah, and it's going to rain again this afternoon, if the sky isn't lying."

"Yes, it will," Astoria agreed. "It won't be nearly as bad as the one that wrecked her garden, though."

"We can hope," Amy said. Sammy could certainly use a break.

"Hope indeed. She has been a little... crazy since the storm." Astoria gave Amy a significant look. "If you can get her a little calmed about the whole situation, that would be great. Perhaps reminding her that the strange issues have died down lately."

Amy wasn't quite so sure of that, but it might work. "I'll try it, Astoria."

It was at that point that the first customer of the day came in, and both the young lady and the old one turned to bow to newcomer and serve them.

The morning went pretty well for Astoria's shop. A few more customers than usual came through, and Astoria made more money than she sometimes made in a full day. Not that she needed it. After she had been in the Royal Magical Society for many many years, she was now effectively retired.

She had this shop because she thought people would like it, and it allowed her to fill her days. Or so she told Amy, anyway.

"Been busy today?" Sammy asked as she came in.

"Probably not as busy as you," Amy said, smiling at the younger girl. Sammy ran over to give Amy a quick hug. "How is the recovery going?"

"Better than expected, worse than hoped," Sammy replied. "Thanks for your advice, Astoria. I was able to save some of the flowers with that rune you recommended."

"Happy to help," Astoria said with a soft smile. "I'm sorry to hear it's not going as well as you'd hoped."

"Well, I'm going to be losing some progress when it rains this afternoon. At least, that's if I did the Glamour weather-prediction correctly this morning."

"That's what we thought," Amy said. "We both got rain as well."

Sammy sighed. "I guess it was too much to hope for that I had done it wrong when I got that result."

"Would you like some help after lunch, Sammy?" Amy asked.

"I'd love some," Sammy said. She looked to Astoria. "Have you been too busy to let Amy go for an hour or two?"

Astoria pretended to think about it for a moment. "I guess I could give her up for about that long if you think you could use her, my dear." She looked out the window. "It's really lunchtime. Amazing how time flies when you're having fun."

"I'm glad that you have fun when you work," Amy said as Astoria walked to the back to get lunch started.

"Of course. Why else would I be here?" Astoria said as she went out of sight.

The instant she was gone, Sammy turned a conspiratorial smile on Amy. "So? How did it go?"

Amy feigned that she didn't know precisely what Sammy was talking about. "How did what go?"

Sammy hit her arm. "The thing with Alexander! Weren't you going on a walk with him before you did that thing with Ribbon? How did it go?"

Amy sighed. "He didn't get the hint."

"No!" Sammy's eyes got wide. "So... now what?"

Amy shrugged. "Maybe I ask him to another walk? It's not like it wasn't fun to talk to him. Or be with him for a while."

"How did he not take the hint?" Sammy said, disgusted. "Didn't you basically ask him to kiss you?"

"Well... sort of..."

"I mean, that's the sort of thing that I'd love to do with someone that I liked," Sammy said, plowing through Amy's halting speech. "And if someone asked me to go on a walk like that, I'd probably kiss them at the end, or say no to the walk in the first place."

Amy tried not to fidget as Sammy continued to think aloud. It had been nice to go on a walk with him, but Sammy did have a point in that he didn't react in the way that they had thought... or she had hoped. She heard Astoria coming back out from the back room, however, and she motioned desperately for Sammy to stop. Sammy, noticing the same thing, wisely stopped her tirade and smiled up at her friend. Amy tried to keep the volume down on her sigh of relief.

They managed to get through lunch without straying too close to the topic that Amy didn't want to discuss in front of Astoria, though the knowing looks she was getting from her Glamour mentor did not bode well. Once finished, Amy and Sammy rose to go to Sammy's garden. "Are you due at Mr. Ribbon's this evening?"

Amy stopped and let out a breath. "I don't know; he didn't tell me he needed me this morning." He could call for her at any time, though, and she would have to come.

"Alright. Hopefully we girls have you all day instead," Astoria said, sipping her tea. "If you can't come back, swing by or have Sammy swing by to tell me."

"Okay, Astoria. Thank you." Then the door to the shop was closed behind her.

"What kind of experiments does Ribbon have you doing these days?" Sammy asked as the two of them walked the route from the shop to Sammy's garden.

"Oh, you know. Same old, same old." The last person she would ever tell about Master Ribbon's true experiments was Sammy... though that was for very different reasons than she wasn't telling Astoria or anyone else about them. Or her predicament.

"If you find Alchemy boring, you should stop your apprenticeship," Sammy said.

Crap. "Ah, well, you know how parents can be. Mother would be highly disappointed in me if I quit now."

"But you have two apprenticeships," Sammy said in a matter-of-fact tone. "Most people with only one are overworked. If you work yourself to death, I'm not going to forgive you."

"I'll keep that in mind," Amy told her with a sad sort of smile. If I'm lucky, it'll only kill me. "So what would be the best thing for us to work on today?"

"Weeding and tidying the yellows on the north side," Sammy said. "It'd be best if I had the ability to sell stuff that goes with most of what people want now, anyway."

"How is business? Still turning enough of a profit?"

Sammy sighed. "It's alright. I don't think it'd be much better if I wasn't having this trouble with the storms, though. There aren't enough people interested in buying flowers that come through this town, I think."

"I see," Amy said. It was probably true. The traffic through the town still kept up a decent pace, but most of the people who were traveling through were not interested in buying anything that wasn't useful on their trip like food or healing minor bumps and scrapes or similar. Simple showy flowers were not on their minds at all. She was now on her knees, pulling up the weeds that had sprouted - or in some cases, blown from outside the garden into it in the past few days.

"You're here again?" Sammy said, ostensibly to someone outside of the garden's confines.

Amy glanced up to see that there was a young woman, about her own age — mid-twenties — dressed in muted colors and wearing small spectacles on her large nose. "I told you I like gardening. I'd love to help."

Amy looked over to see that Sammy was seriously considering this offer, but did not seem to come to a decision very quickly. Looking back at the newcomer, Amy found that this young woman was now smiling genially at her. "Since she seems occupied by my offer, I thought I might introduce myself. Gertrude Silvaner; pleased to make your acquaintance...?"

"Amy. Amy Foster," Amy replied. "You just like gardening?"

"Well, Glamour wasn't my best school of magic when I learned, but I'd like to think that I did pretty well with it," Gertrude said, now leaning on the fence that surrounded Sammy's garden. "Gardens and infusion of plants... that was one of the more peaceful applications of magic. It was... nice. Relaxing. I haven't really had the opportunity lately. So I thought I'd ask." She leaned in conspiratorially. "What did you do to get her to let you help?"

"We're friends," Amy said succinctly. "What brings you to Sallah? Moving on soon?" Like every other traveler ever.

Gertrude seemed unperturbed by Amy's quick change of subject. "I'm taking it slow this time. Part that I don't want to move on to my next destination, and part wanting to actually see what there is to see of my Kingdom."

Sammy came out of her thoughts in time to snort. "Your Kingdom?"

"Well it's yours too," Gertrude said in mock annoyance, though the facade broke quickly. "Until recently, I hadn't the chance to slow down and look around."

"Well I hope you have some good stories then," Sammy said, then her eyes brightened. "Have you heard anything about the Remnant Revnant?!"

Amy rolled her eyes. When she returned to looking at Gertrude, she found that the young woman still looked serene. "No," Gertrude said after a moment. "At least, probably nothing you haven't already heard."

"It's nothing more than a wives' tale," Amy said with a disdainful sniff.

"But wouldn't it be incredibly awesome if she were to come here and kill some evil Archmage supporter?" Sammy asked with awe evident in her voice.

"No," Amy spat with more venom than she intended. She took a breath to calm her frayed nerves. "It wouldn't be awesome. It would be messy. And more people would be hurt than just the evil people. I can't imagine that the Revnant, were this person to exist, hasn't been gravely injured either."

"But wouldn't that make her more heroic?" Sammy pointed out.

Amy looked at Sammy with equal parts desperation and sadness, with a dash of trying to remain calm. "You don't understand what happens when evil people fight against good people, do you?"

"You must have some personal experience on the matter," Gertrude said. Amy opened her mouth to retort, but it died on her lips when Gertrude held up her hands. "It's too gorgeous a day to be spending our time thinking about such things. Now, can I help, Miss Siliam?"

Sammy, unused to being addressed in such a way, stuttered a bit and even looked over to Amy for help, who was still trying to get her breathing under control, before she finally relented. "Alright, you can help. Could you weed the west box?" She pointed to the section of the garden that she meant, since this newcomer might not have the same ease of determining the cardinal directions from the way the buildings in town were laid out as Amy and Sammy.

"Sure can," the newcomer said. She rolled up her sleeves hopped over the fence with agility that seemed to be against the logic of her clothing and got herself down into the dirt.

"Do you really want to get that dress dirty?" Amy asked her when she couldn't handle the curiosity anymore.

"Worth it," was the response.

Amy thought that she would certainly not get down on her hands and knees in such a dress, but maybe this woman came from money and clothes were the last thing on her mind.

But, as the young lady actually worked and Sammy didn't seem to mind her presence, Amy put her strangeness out of her head as best she could, and continued to work on her own section for Sammy's sake.

"Oh, is it that late already?" Gertrude said suddenly, looking out to the west. When Amy looked herself, she found that the sun was indeed well on its way down the horizon and the colors were becoming more and more red and orange. A young man and young woman were walking along with road with significant packs on. Nothing else was really going on on the main pathway, which probably was not helping Sammy with her selling.

Amy stood up and clapped the dirt off of her hands. "I'm gonna go help Astoria close up, Sammy."

Sammy nodded at her. "Alright. Then you should go see that boy, if you don't have to do anything else tonight."

Amy very nearly hissed at her - She said that in front of an outsider no less! - but she thought better of it when she saw that Gertrude was not really paying all that much attention to the conversation on the other side of the garden. Amy did give in to a sigh, though. "Maybe. See you tomorrow."

"Bye!"

Now Gertrude looked up. "It was nice to meet you, Miss Foster."

"You too, Miss Silvaner."

It didn't take long to get back to the shop, where as expected, Astoria had just started on cleaning up for closing. "You were longer than I expected," Astoria told Amy as she walked in.

"Not by that much," Amy said, sliding in to one of her own cleanup duties at the shop. "Besides, you need the most help at closing, and I'm here for that."

"I'm not going to dispute that part, certainly," the older woman said with a sigh. "I do wish that I didn't lose you to Mr. Ribbon or Sammy as often as I do. I'm getting too old to run this shop by myself."

"Oh you're doing fine; no whining," Amy said with an undercurrent of mirth. "You're still much faster than me at all of this; it can't be too bad yet."

As if proof, Amy suddenly found that Astoria was next to her and giving her a supreme glare. Which Amy supremely ignored.

The cleanup and tidying of the shop after a full day of customers didn't take very long, leaving about half the sun above the western horizon when Amy left the shop and headed down the street to her room adjacent to the lab.

But she had another place she wanted to go first.

There was only one church necessary to serve a town the size of Sallah, and even then some of the surrounding farms were close enough that it was the most convenient place for them to come to service as well. But there was no service this evening. Amy walked into the small nave and shut the door behind her with a small click before picking her favorite pew and sitting and closing her eyes.

While she was not very good with Sorcery or Necromancy, the two schools of magic that the religious types tended to actually care about, she did use each of them from time to time. If only because Ribbon was insistent on her being fairly versatile in her combat prowess. Not being able to even use a school of magic was asking for someone who could only be reliably defeated with that school to attack you. Or so he told her. Amy was really only worried about him attacking her, and he was an Alchemist. So when he told her she needed to learn Sorcery...

Maybe she'd live, if he decided she'd betrayed him. Maybe.

She felt guilty that she had ever had to deal with devils, but she figured as long as she kept within the Grimoire's precepts, and didn't try to experiment with them, maybe God would someday forgive her for that, if not some of the other things that she had done to help Pabst Ribbon in his goals and conquests.

But it was not God's forgiveness she sought.

"Again?" a measured and expected voice came from behind her. "Are you sure you don't need confessional?"

Amy smiled gently as she turned her head to regard the speaker. "Weren't you the one who told me that confession isn't something the church does much anymore?"

"We still could, if we wanted to. The Rite still exists," Deacon Alexander Brandy replied, sliding into the pew next to her. "But seriously. Is something wrong? I keep finding you having a moment in the pews."

"I'm alright." For now. "Today I just wanted to see you."

He acquired a wry grin. "As much as that makes me feel all warm and fuzzy inside—" Amy's heart jumped in her chest. "—I do have things to do, Amy."

Amy looked down at the hymnals in the shelf built into the pew in front of her. "You don't want to see me?"

"Not what I said," Alexander sing-songed. "Our Priests are both out on visitations tonight so I have to be on call for whatever happens, in addition to making sure that everything's in proper order for Morning Prayer tomorrow. But that's all beside the point. What's wrong?"

Amy sighed. "I'm sorry... I can't talk about it." First time she hadn't lied about it all day.

"Hence you come here to think about it?" Alexander asked.

"Hence I come here to see you." Was that too obvious? Sammy probably wouldn't think so.

"How about we go on a walk tomorrow?" he said. "I can see you after Morning Prayer pretty much any time before lunch. We can talk about it then."

"Or something else?" Amy said in a small voice.

"Anything you like," he said with a smile. "And you can be here and pray with God as long as you want; I'll be in the office." He rose and walked back to the door through which he had come, which he left open. She could hear the scratching of his pen.

Amy took a shuddering breath and tried not to cry as she slumped down into the pew. Maybe God would help her that much?