"Does that mean you're going to skip?"

Arie rolled back over and scowled at the calm face of the lady knight. "Fine," she grumbled. Then she struggled out of bed and into her working clothes. Once she was dressed she woke Jess. The small girl didn't even bat an eye. She simply got up and got dressed in clothes that a maid had brought by. Arie was jealous of the fact that the little girl didn't so much as crack a yawn. Together, the three walked through the castle and out onto the practice yard. Silence echoed around them. Kel took them through the stretching exorcises for she began showing Arie and Jess how to go through different throws. They didn't stop until Arie's muscles were protesting in pain. Finally, Arie sat on the edge of the practice area panting.

"I haven't hurt this much in a long time," Arie huffed.

Kel came over by her with a water skin. The knight passed the water to Arie. "You have definitely improved since the first time we sparred."

Arie took a few quick gulps of water before dumping the rest over her head. "You catch on pretty quick yourself. Guess all that training to become a knight was usual after all."

Kel smiled, but it quickly died. "Arie, I wanted to apologize for what happened at dinner last night."

Arie shifted her gaze to the grass under her boots. "You don't have to. It wasn't your fault." Which was the truth, even if it left a sour taste in her mouth. "Say you had warned me, then what? You would have broken vows to protect this country. And what would I have done? Run? No, that would only confirm my guilt in the eyes of others."

Kel grunted in agreement, but Arie could tell she was unsatisfied with it.

"If you feel you must make it up to me, then do me a favor," Arie said to Kel. "Take Jess to get some breakfast. Make sure she eats well and stays safe until I get back."

Kel nodded. "And what will you being doing?"

"I have a promise to keep." Arie could feel the knight's gaze on her face.

After a pause of silence Kel nodded. "Alright." She looked towards Jess who was coming back with another full water skin. "Are you going now?"

"I'll go after I tell Jess where I'm going. That way she doesn't worry."

Jess handed Arie the water skin, and Arie thanked the girl, before taking another big swig. She handed the skin to Kel.

"Jess, I want you to go with Kel and have breakfast. I have to go see someone while you doing that, but I will return."

Her big eyes looked at Arie with such blind faith. "Where are you going?"

"Do you remember the people who were hurt yesterday?"

Jess nodded. Her gaze was far too mature for her few handful of years.

"I'm going to go check on the mother of one of those people. He was worried there was something wrong with her."

"Can't I go with? I won't be in the way. I promise." There was an almost desperate tone to her voice, like she was worried Arie would disappear if she was out of sight too long.

"No, little one. You would not be in my way at all. But-" Arie's throat constricted painfully as the truth threatened to choke her.

"But?"

"You remember back at home, how some people didn't like me very much?"

Jess bobbed her head up and down. "Like the mayor."

"Yes, like the mayor. There are a lot of people here like the mayor. If they see you spending a lot of time with me they might not treat you very nicely."

"I don't care," she stamped her foot in defiance.

Arie was startled by the laugh that burst from herself. Jess, on the other hand, narrowed her eyes at Arie. Then the girl stomped her foot again and shouted, "I was being serious."

Arie stifled her laughter, but a grin still split her face. "I know little one, and I thank you. But I also have to think of your safety. I wouldn't want you to get hurt." Arie saw protests rise in Jess's eyes an cut it off before it could begin. "If you are good, eat all your breakfast, and don't give Lady Kel too much trouble, then you can help me in the clinic."

Jess pursed her lips and glanced at Kel. When she turned back to Arie she asked, "Promise?"

Arie bowed her head, "You have my word."

Jess turned expectantly to Kel. The lady smiled offered her hand to the child. "If you want, after breakfast I can teach you how to handle a spear. Then you could do more practices with us."

Jess's eyes lit up. "Really?"

"Yes, really," Kel promised as she led the younger girl off the practice yard.

Soon they were out of sight. Arie took a deep breath and turned and headed for the front gate. She traveled silently and did her best to avoid servants and guards. Arie certainly wasn't in the mood to meet a certain knight. Finally she walked across the courtyard towards the gate. A figure slouched against the gate waiting for her.

Lerant.

She took one step past him and he said, "I told mi'Lord you'd probably try sneaking out to go about your work after what happened last night. He said I should go with you and make sure there aren't any more misunderstandings."

A warm feeling welled up in her chest. Arie was fairly certain that Lerant would have been waiting for her here even if Lord Raoul had told him not to. "Just be careful," she warned him.

"Same to you." He walked a step behind and beside her. "So where exactly are we going?"

"To the house of one of the men who died during the attack." She could feel Lerant's gaze narrowing on her back.

"Do you know where that is?"

"Yes." Arie had to bite the inside of her cheek to keep from grinning. It had been a long time since she had really enjoyed teasing someone. The more she did so with Lerant the lighter she felt. They continued their banter as they walked making the trip pass it what felt like seconds. All too soon the two of them stood in front of the house that the ghost had told Arie about.

The house was decent enough despite the fact that it was crammed between a tannery and an apothecary. Arie wrinkled her nose as the smells of all the herbs and the tannery assaulted her. Beside her, Lerant was almost choking on the smells that were so thick they left a taste on their tongues.

"This is it," Lerant asked through his hand .

"Yes."

"Someone can live around this smell?" he grouched.

Arie shrugged. "People do what they have to." She glanced at the apothecary and something in her memories stirred. It couldn't be, she thought. She remembered this building from the few times she visited it with her mother. The woman who ran it, Edith, had been in her late nineties when Arie fled Port Legann. Could she still be alive and working, Arie wondered. She reached up and rapped her knuckles against the door. There was no answer. Arie knocked again, but there was still no answer.

"Maybe no one's home," Lerant muttered.

Arie snorted, and turned the knob experimentally. The door opened to darkness. She shrugged and pushed the door farther open. "Edith?" Arie called into the gloom. "Edith, are you there? Your son sent me to-"

A blood curdling howl cut through the silence of the house. "My son! What have you done with my son you gutter trollup?" A pale shape exploded from the shadows to the left of Arie. All she saw was a flash of a blade before a bed-ragged human tackled her.

Arie threw up her arms and snatched the wrist that was connected to a pair of pruning shears. They grappled on the ground. Old woman trying to stab Arie, and Arie struggling not to be stabbed, but also not hurt the old woman. Arie could see blood had already dried in between the dull blades. A sickly sweet smell wafted from the old woman's mouth as she screeched threats and insults at Arie. Finally, Lerant was able to pry Edith off of her.

The old woman's hair was matted and wild, but not nearly as wild as the look in her eyes. Edith thrashed and struggled against Lerant's hold like fish on a line. Her age completely belied the strength in her withered body. It wasn't until Edith got a good look at Arie did she cease her struggles.

"So Anna," Edith spat at Arie. "Have come back from the grave to get your revenge on those who hurt your brat? Is that why my son was killed? Cause I turned out that monster you call a daughter?"

Anger rose in Arie so quick and sharp that she couldn't even think to stop herself. Arie slapped Edith. "You spit on Anna's memory with your talk. You know as well as any, she'd never have wanted revenge. Least of all would she take her anger out on a child of someone who had hurt her."

For the first time since Edith jumped Arie, she was silent. Arie took the reprieve to reach for her Gift. She was not surprised to find Edith's body ran with the black poison. What did surprise her was how thick the older woman's body ran with it. Edith was a good natured woman, someone who was fairly selfless. A day or two shouldn't have had her so adversely affected. Arie felt unease prickly at the back of her neck. It seemed like Edith had been infected for weeks before the attack on the port.

"Hold her tightly." Then Arie warned Lerant, "She is infected."

Lerant nodded and kept a firm grip on Edith's shoulders. She could see he was struggling to hold Edith without hurting the old woman. Arie would have to work fast to reduce the amount of stress on Edith's body. Blue green fire burned in Arie's hand and then it swarmed over Edith. The old woman tried to fight of the magic and howled when nothing she did worked. Lerant held on with bruising force. Slowly Arie eradicated the poison. Unlike everyone else who she had healed, Edith's memories were jumbled fractured and cloudy, symptoms of the plaque on the brain. Little by little Edith's struggles lessened until all three of them were kneeling in the road panting. When the very last bit was gone from Edith's body, she sobbed and rocked herself back and forth.

"You can let her go now, Lerant." Arie watched Edith.

Hesitantly, Lerant let go of the old woman. Immediately she bent forward and sobbed, "I'm so sorry, Anna! I'm so sorry! Please forgive me? So many people were afraid. They would have killed me and my children if I had helped her. Necromancy isn't something people take lightly." On and on she mumbled her apologies and excuses until Arie reached out and touched her shoulder to comfort her.

"Edith, Anna is dead. She's been dead for years. I don't think she blames you for what happened. Edith's eyes gazed up at her, red and puffy from the tears still streaming from them. Arie continued before the older woman could start her stream of babble again. "Edith, your son Noah sent me here to check on you. He said you were sick. Do you remember what happened, when this started?"

Edith's mind had been so jumbled up. Even if Arie fixed the damage and cleared the plaque from her mind it might not be enough to make the memories clear. The plaque would mean how she saw things from that time would be seen through the lenses of a broken mind. But just maybe Edith could remember something that would give Arie clues.

Edith blinked at Arie and smiled. "Anna, it's been so long." Her smile turned to a frown and she rubbed her head. "No, you're dead, I remember that. And the week after... Arie, I'm sorry about what happened to her... A young man came by a couple weeks ago. He was asking about her. He left some..." her voice trailed off and her eyes got misty. "Oh Anna, I'm so so-"

Arie laid her hand across the old woman's brow and poured just enough of her Gift into Edith. From one breath to another Edith fell asleep and slumped against Lerant. He looked more than a little unpleased by this turn of events.

"Can you keep an eye on her while I check her home for anything contaminated." Arie looked around the road at the other buildings. It was very strange that no one had come after all the commotion Edith had made.

Lerant's gaze followed hers and he seemed to be thinking the same thing. "Be careful, there could be more people like her in there."

That was a chance Arie was going to have to take because there was no way she was returning Edith to this place if she ran the risk of getting re-infected. She took another step into the darkness and somehow the smell from the shops were stronger in the house than out on the road. A glance to the right revealed nothing out of the ordinary, just a sitting room and a wash room. A few more steps and the same sickly sweet smell that had been on Edith's breath filled her nose.

Putrefaction.

There was something dead and rotting in the house, something Edith had eaten. It was old death too, if she wasn't feeling the tell-tale pain in her stomach. A soft buzzing came from the end of the hall, where the kitchen was likely to be. Arie steeled herself against what she was likely to find. Then she stepped into the room. In the gloom, she could make out cabinets, and a big wooden table. Dirt a grime covered every surface, but what had Arie choking was the pile of dead birds in the center of the table. Flies buzzed insistently around the bodies of dozens of pigeons. The whole mound pulsed in a decaying mass. Arie looked away the second she saw bones that looked like they had been gnawed on. She spit on the ground to get the foul taste out of her mouth then she directed her magic to the macabre pile. In seconds there was nothing left, not even a feather.

"I'm sorry about your messengers, father," Arie whispered the words, but her band still warmed against her wrist.

Arie's stomach heaved suddenly. She clamped her mouth shut and struggled against her bodies urge to vomit. Once she defeated the urge, she got to work searching anything that carried the curse. Arie searched the cabinets and bottles that lined the wall, even the herbs that hung from the ceiling to dry. Nothing stood out. She was just about to leave when she noticed an empty bottle of spirits laying discarded in the corner of the room. Something about it struck her as odd.

Arie picked up the bottle and looked for the stamp of purchase that was supposed to be on all spirits. But there was none. Judging by the state of the bottle it was old, a couple weeks at least. So what was Edith doing with an unmarked bottle? Unless she received it as a gift, Arie reasoned. With Arie's Gift in her eyes, she saw the inside of the bottle was covered in a thin layer of the poison. Anger beat at the back of Arie's mind. She would bet all her coin that this was, 'the gift that the young man' brought that Edith had been speaking about.

Her magic devoured the curse and Arie stowed the bottle in her bag under her cloak. Then she continued her search of the house. There was nothing else in the house except a tin full of jewelry that Edith had no way to afford. Arie cursed under her breath when she found the stash. She wouldn't leave it here for someone to find and get Edith in trouble. After tucking the box under her arm, Arie did one final sweep of the house that found nothing.

When she stepped out into the morning sun Lerant asked, "Did you find anything."

"Yes, we need to take her back to the clinic. I'm pretty sure she's eaten things she shouldn't." Arie shuddered at the thought of the pile of birds. "Can you carry her?"

Lerant nodded and adjusted Edith so she lay against his back. Then Arie helped him hoist old woman up. Then he noticed the box under Arie's arm. "What's that?"

"Never mind what it is." She glanced around at the houses and shops along the road. All the windows were suspiciously closed, not even a curtain twitched. "Let's hurry."

Lerant caught her urgency and quickened his pace as much as his new burden allowed. Unlike the way from the castle to the house, the trip to the clinic was a long and tense one. By the time the clinic came into view, Lerant was sweating and panting from the effort. Two guards stationed at the front of the clinic door saw them and both of them rushed to help. Edith was laid out in a cot. Arie directed several of the healers to look at her stomach, as well warned that her mind was not what it should be. The two healers nodded and promised to have Edith watched constantly. As they worked Arie pulled one of the guards aside and handed the box of jewelry to him.

"I need these taken to the local Provost. I believe the rightful owner will be thrilled to have this property back."

The guard nodded and went to open the lid.

Arie smacked it closed. "Be warned, I magicked the box to curse anyone who took from this, that which doesn't belong to them." She brought her Gift to her hands so the guard could see it. The guard's eyes widened in fear and sweat broke out his forehead. He nodded again and hesitantly took the box. Then he left a quick pace, the box held slightly away from him.

Lerant walked over to her. "Did you really curse that box?" he whispered.

"No, I can't work that kind of magic."

"What about your necklaces." He touched the charm she had given him.

"My sister is the one who created them. She just worked my magic into them."

A strange look passed over his face. He fingered the blue green rose and said, "Thanks again, for what you did."

Blush crept across her face. "Don't mention it."