Oh, hey look I'm back. Do you remember the BartSeq2023 March Prompt Week? I will get everything posted I swear. And yes I'm going to post this under the Tumblr Tag. I wrote it for the event its getting posted for under the event. This took so long because I was trying to get my Beta to actually read it. We've come to an understanding that editing takes to much out of her: so unfiltered Neathra from here on out.
And oh hey, Elizabeth is back. Would be nice if she cooperated with the The Wood are Lovely Dark and Deep story. I've got that completely plotted.
Heads would roll when Nathaniel finally figured out who was the ringleader behind his staff letting Elizabeth waltz into his office unannounced. It wasn't that he wanted to discourage her visits. His physician had actually been quite pleased with his weight gain since they started having lunch together. When Dr. Besner had tactfully informed him to add more pounds and less stress to his life, Elizabeth had ta ken it as a personal challenge. She had certainly helped with the pounds, but his cortisol levels remained 300% above normal, and it was times like this, when he had important paperwork to do, that a surprise visit from his fiancé made him want to close his eyes and take deep breaths.
"Absolutely not. I am far too busy." Nathaniel replied to her latest request.
Knowing Elizabeth, he was fairly certain she would seek to employ some heart melting look to trap him, so he resisted the urge to meet her gaze by keeping his eyes fixed on the headline of the press release he'd been writing about a recent magical mishap:"Gas explosion levels house in Surrey". Fortunately, Elizabeth's puppy-dog eyes were the only risk he faced at the moment. The highly disapproving white cat that typically adorned her shoulders was nowhere to be seen.
Elizabeth called the thing Ana, but that overprotective shadow was clearly a powerful djinn, and Nathaniel had no idea who it might be. All he knew was that the spirit had hated him from the moment Makepeace grudgingly introduced him to the young woman who had been the playwright's ward since the death of her been an awkward first meeting: somebody had bumped the ladder upon which Elizabeth had precariously perched to hang silver stars from the theater's roof, and Nathaniel literally broke her fall – and cracked a few of his own ribs in the process.
"Oh, come on John. The empire will not fall apart just because you spontaneously took one afternoon off. Everyone knows only half of the ministers do any work at all, and you already do more work than most of the rest!" Elizabeth argued with growing frustration.
When that - admittedly true - observation did not sway him, she tried a new tactic: bribery.
"We can snuggle at the back of the theater, eat popcorn and watch how many adults freak out about the Haunted Theatre Extravaganza!is aimed at 7-year-olds, so you won't even have to take out your lenses - it's all practical effects."
When this also failed to achieve her aim, Elizabeth threw down her trump card: guilt.
Making an unhappy noise, she tragically collapsed into the chair opposite his desk and wined, "And after all the work I did to ditch Ana…"
"I was wondering why I wasn't getting death glared at today."
"For the record, I am so sorry she's like that!"
Her tone made Nathaniel look up. The puppy eyes disappeared as Elizabeth's face became clouded with embarrassment. Not that this made it any safer to look at her sitting primly across from him. Gazing at the way the light glinted on her golden hair, Nathanial could not help but admire the way it loosely curled around her shoulders. She had pulled it back from her face with a pastel orange headband that perfectly matched the cardigan she wore over an equally pastel blue pinafore and cream blouse. Nathaniel knew the ensemble was intended to project a distinct (and false) impression of naive innocence that kept Elizabeth from being perceived as any kind of direct threat in the world of magicians. Still, she looked adorable.
"I don't know what her issue is with you." she continued, "Ana doesn't react that way to anyone else."
Which would make Elizabeth the only person who didn't have a clue.
Nathaniel mused over the prospect of a date with Elizabeth that didn't end with his arm covered with painful scratches. It did sound nice.
"Well, I'm supposed it would be a good test for Ms. Piper and the other deputies if I unexpectedly took the afternoon off."
The smile those words earned was like the sun coming out from behind the clouds.
Directly across from Apollo Theatre, stood a charming little bakery called More Flour to You. This relatively new establishment had opened up just over a year ago, and catered primarily to upper middle-class commoners and magician apprentices who were old enough to be making some, but not much, money. Their specialty was crepes.
The bakery had also become a favorite among the actors, so before entering the theatre, Elizabeth decided to stop there first to buy some desserts. It was packed. Unable to find anywhere to sit, Nathaniel selected a sunny spot near the big front window to stand, while Elizabeth plunged into the cue of customers to place their order. As he waited, Nathaniel amused himself by looking through the window at all the people passing by, some pointing at the dessert displays, and others excitedly talking and otherwise enjoying themselves.
Across the street, the theater's doors were flung wide open and a steady stream of mostly commoners flowed it. The majority were adults and small children: normal families or young apprentices with their minders. In another world, Mrs. Underworld might have brought a younger version of himself to such an event – but it was best not to think about that. Besides the adults and children, several groups of older teenagers headed in as well. Nathaniel noted that regardless of how they dressed, teenagers always seemed to run in packs. He was sure that some must be senior apprentices, but the ratio of young magicians to commoners wasn't entirely clear from the distance.
As he observed their antics, Nathaniel considered how unremarkable he was to strangers he met in public. He was always surprised at how easily he blended in after taking off his tie and letting Elizabeth fuss with his hair for a few minutes. As far as the bakery's other patrons were concerned, he seemed be no more than some senior apprentice - if he was a magician at all. Nobody wanted to believe the Information Minister could be as young as he was, and that suited him just fine at times like this.
It wasn't long before Elizabeth tottered over, expertly balancing two crepes and her wallet.
"Here, your standard banana and hazelnut chocolate." she said, handing him his crepe. He noticed there was a small neat bite taken out of it.
"You know Liz, I understand you feel more comfortable paying, but I wouldn't mind chipping in if it meant I got to eat an entire dessert by myself."
"But we ALWAYS share." The pout was adorable. "Besides you're footing the bill for the catering and alcohol at our wedding, and it was your connections that got us the venue, so little things like this make me feel less like a gold digger. Here, have a bite of mine!"
"Your point is made. What flavor did you decide to try today?" Of course, he already knew the answer. It was October, and Elizabeth only ever got one flavor in October - cheery. He hated cherry.
"Sour cherry and cream cheese." she confirmed brightly, "It is the flavor of the month!" she added, holding out the crepe for him to inspect.
"That drizzle is new." he observed. In addition to the thick dark cherry sauce and pristine white cream cheese, someone had added a bright red drizzle to Elizabeth's crepe. "But no thank you."
"Mmm." Elizabeth grinned through a mouthful of pastry, "more for me."
The Haunted Theatre Extravaganza! was all Elizabeth's work. Makepeace had always considered it low brow, unrefined, and generally beneath him. Elizabeth's crew decorated the theatre like the inside of a haunted mansion. Then the cast, on cue from the disembodied tour guide and dressed in appropriately scary costumes, took turns jumping out of shadows and reciting horrible lines to the shrieks of joy and fear of the children, adults and associated teenagers.
Nathaniel was pleased to discover that apart from a few tricks that were revealed by the dark-sight granted by his lenses (he was able to spot some of the actors hiding in the shadows and the disembodied tour guide turned out to be a rather short man dressed all in black), true to Elizabeth's word, most of the effects held up. It was all delightfully creepy. The little kids oohed and awed, the teenagers squealed and grabbed each other, and it was easy enough to tell the magicians from the commoners. The commoners weren't looking around furtively or giving extra loud screams when a well-hidden cast member hurled themselves out of a hiding place or breathed down the back their necks. From the sound of things, the cast had clearly figured this out too.
Fortunately, Nathaniel was not targeted by virtue of his being with Elizabeth. The two hung back in the crowd, nibbling on their crepes. Nathaniel would get an occasional head nod from a cast member walking by, while Elizabeth was afforded more physical affection: shoulder bumps, high fives and the like.
The brief walking tour around the theater ended in the auditorium proper. Here the kids were invited to participate in the swinging ghostly party currently going on onstage, while the adults were directed to the seats to watch. Nathaniel and Elizabeth found seats in the back, and they sat close together with Elizabeth snuggling up against his side.
Everything was going great, until Elizabeth, who had tossed her soft orange cardigan on the chair next to them, began rubbing – then scratching at something on her arm. She then suddenly coughed, gasped for breath, and collapsed. The last few uneaten bites of her crepe dropping to the floor.
"Elizabeth!" Nathaniel shouted, trying to stop her limp body from crashing to the floor. "Medic, medic we need help over here!" Her unconscious body was like a dead weight in his arms.
The actors and children on stage froze. Closest to stage right stood an actress dressed as a bloodstained bride that Nathaniel had been introduced to earlier. He focused on her -oh, what was her name? "Caitlin! Call an ambulance."
The bride nodded and darted off stage to the phone in the back. Meanwhile, the diminutive unseen tour guide, whose name was George, jogged up the aisle. He helped Nathaniel gently lower Elizabeth to the floor.
George turned out to be one of the more grounded actors. He had apparently been present at several incidents in the past where Elizabeth had gone into shock and knew the drill.
"Where's her purse?" he asked urgently. Looking around at the seats.
"On that chair." Nathaniel indicated the purse.
"Is she still breathing?" George asked as he upended Elizabeth's purse, its contents raining out in a disorganized mess on the floor. With precision speed, George grabbed the EpiPen from where it had fallen, yanked out the blue tip, and placed the orange end against Elizabeth's upper thigh - pushing firmly until the auto-injector clicked to signal that the injection had started. He held it there for several seconds that seemed like a lifetime to Nathaniel.
"Yes I am, but not well." Elizabeth rasped. Her breathing was labored and shallow. Each breath was struggle, but she was breathing.
"What the hell set you off?" George asked, his voice less of a frenzy now that medication was in Elizabeth and seemed to be working. He began to repack her things.
Elizabeth's allergies were a total enigma. She reacted violently to a variety of substances - the only link being that spirits reacted violently to the stuff too. However, Bartimaeus insisted she was human, and so far, nobody had been able to figure out the connection. Over the few years he'd know her, Nathaniel had seen Elizabeth become violently sick after eating rosemary, develop a nasty rash and hives from silver jewelry, and suffer a stuffy, runny nose from a whiff of lavender perfume. The worst was the time she'd been forced to use his shower following an incident with Bartimaeus and can of pasta sauce, and the residue from his rosemary mint body wash caused chemical burns on her feet. After that incident, he'd given up his laurel aftershave before that too caused a problem. Since most magicians kept stockpiles of wards all over the house, he seriously wondered how she'd managed to survive living with Makepeace.
"Nothing." Even with the epinephrine in her system she didn't sound good. "That's just it. There was nothing. No unusual smells, no contact with any strange substances…" Nathaniel trailed off as an image of red drizzle popped into his head.
"The shop used a new drizzle on your crepe!"
Scanning the floor, Nathaniel located the remains of Elizabeth's snack and wrapped it in a napkin for the hospital to test - best to find out what it was, or to at least to verify that it was not something more sinister, like poison. Nathaniel doubted it would be since Elizabeth was already breathing easier. The medication was working.
Quentin Makepeace was a man with no inside voice. So, the moment he stepped into the emergency department, everyone was fully aware he had arrived.
As Elizabeth's legal guardian, Makepeace had been informed of her condition by the hospital staff, who were glad there was no need to choose between placating an irate magician - even one whose skills seemed to lie in areas other than direct magic - and following hospital guidelines. The nurses were already plenty familiar with Makepeace and his Ward. When the still groggy Elizabeth had arrived in the ambulance, she was greeted by a friendly "long time no see".
Makepeace's loud approach gave Nathaniel plenty of time to put a few feet between himself and Elizabeth's bedside. Thus, when Makepeace dramatically burst through the examination room's door, he - and more importantly the irate white cat ridding his shoulders – found Nathaniel at a spirit approved distance away from her.
"Lizcka!" The feline djinn exclaimed as she jumped with fluid grace from Makepeace to Elizabeth's lap in bed. "My darling, how could you sneak off like that?"
She was so distressed that the Russian accent she perpetually affected had actually slipped – he knew she'd been doing it on purpose.
"What if you had been irreversibly hurt? What if George hadn't kept his head when you had that reaction? What if someone had decided to kidnap you?"
With those words, the cat turned her head to glare disapproving at Nathaniel, as though she suspected him of plotting exactly that.
Like the djinn, Makepeace was also possessed of an almost single-minded focus. He raced over to Elizabeth's bedside and grasped her IV free hand.
"Elizabeth – are you all right? Oh, thank goodness you are all right. When I received young John's imp. I feared the worst. What would have happened? What would I have done if -" Quentin Makepeace cut himself off mid-sentence.
Nathaniel had the distinct impression that for a moment, something had slipped. That he had been shown something he wasn't supposed to have seen. And indeed, when the magician spoke again, the familiar Quentin Makepeace Nathaniel had long known was back.
"Now, my dear, I know you sometimes chafe under Analessa's protection" Makepeace continued, (Nathaniel noted the name for later research) "but it is for your own protection. What would your dear mother say to me if I allowed you to come to harm on my watch? She would never forgive me Lizzy. Never!"
"I just wanted to spend some time alone with John." Elizabeth was a soft pink. "Ana can be a real buzz kill."
"That, kitten, is my job."
"For what it's worth," Nathaniel interjected, "I bear some responsibility for what happened. I should not have encouraged her to avoid her chaperone."
Makepeace made a magnanimous gestured "Now, now, don't be so hard on yourself. I remember what it was like to be 18 - neither of you rush me to declare your shock. Spry I may be, but I am not as young as I look." he gently patted Elizabeth's hand. "And no permanent harm was done. But have we determined what caused this reaction?"
"There was something in my crepe - the hospital is testing it now."
"As to More Flour to You," Nathaniel interjected in order to forestall Makepeace from plotting a theater lead boycott of the bakery or getting the Prime Minister to shut it down or something, "inquiries have been made. One of the new hires has gone missing and his paperwork doesn't hold up upon close examination. The Deputy Police Chief is leading the investigation and has declared it an attempted murder."
Makepeace let out a great sigh, "Very well, she is certainly clever that one. Now, I suppose all we can do is wait for the hospital to find out what your food was tainted -"
He was interrupted by a doctor entering the room. "Hi," she cheerfully greeted them. She pointedly ignored the cat sitting in her patient's lap "Excuse me Mr. Mandrake, but I need to speak to Ms. Law and Mr. Makepeace privately. We just received the results of some tests we ran in regards to her health."
"Oh, he can stay." Elizabeth quickly spoke up before anyone could move. "There should be a release in my file regarding John, but if not, I'd be happy to sign one."
"We can follow up on that later." The doctor replied, "Your word is good enough for now. Well, the results came back super quick. The sample you gave us tested negative for any poison or pathogen. In fact, it's not even a common allergen - just sugar and rowan berries – with no additives or anything else. Since you are clearly not allergic to sugar, that just leaves rowan berries. So, stay away from them. As for the rest of your health, your vitals are good and breathing seems fine. We will have you discharged and out of here as soon as possible."
When the doctor had gone, Elizabeth curled up with Analessa cradled in her arms. "Soon. Sure. I'm gonna nap while they figure out all the paperwork." Analessa purred softly, and happily accepted being treated like a stuffed animal. As she drifted off to sleep, Elizabeth stretched out her hand for Nathaniel's.
He moved closer to reach her. Holding her hand, Nathaniel looked at Makepeace with a serious expression, "Besides us three. Who else knows about the commonality among her allergies?"
Makepeace's face was grave. For once there was no trace of bombast or exuberance in him. "I do not know John, but I plan to find out."
Its Farrah. The person behind the poisoning is Farrah. Not that she has anything against Elizabeth in particular. Just. Well... How dare anyone pick some commoner over her.
Ok, Housekeeping regarding prompt week. Basically everything is written. I just got to edit it. So I'm gonna be uploading once a week with it. So I'll be done with prompt week (checks watch) vaguely on time. (Note from the future: This turned out to be a lie)