Chapter 17
10th Day of Late Winter 768 n.c
I awoke early from dream that at the time felt wonderful, but in waking turned to heartache, anxiety, excitement and a whole host of other emotions that whirled around inside of me. The dream, from what I could recall; featured Malkarov and my rapidly approaching apprenticeship but also included Shard. Waking from it only reinforced our separation and highlighted my worries and concerns at what my immediate future might include. Today was definitely going to be a different day for me, a day of firsts. My first day as an apprentice, my first night ever sleeping in a bed somewhere other than our house and my first time living with someone other than my immediate family (among the innumerable little firsts that are likely to occur).
I got ready for my day quickly and went out into the kitchen to find that I had, in fact, woken earlier than Mother. After getting ready, I banked the kitchen oven fire and started to prepare things for breakfast. I pulled out some dried sausages from the pantry and was slicing them into small pieces when Mother came out into the kitchen.
"Good morning Sharein, are you preparing a fry up?" she greeted me.
I had considered it, but we had an excess of eggs left over from the start of winter and the hens had just started laying again.
"Egg turnovers, I thought," I told Mother.
I loved egg turnovers when we had plenty of eggs to use. You whisked up the eggs in bowl along with some sausage, bacon, winter tomatoes and cheese. You then poured some of this mixture onto the frying pan until it was half cooked and then turned one half onto the other. Once the bottom was cooked, you flipped it over and finished the other side. It was a delicious meal, and one of my favourites for breakfast. I would have liked to have used summer tomatoes had it been the right time of year, but winter tomatoes had a similar flavour even if their flesh was white rather than red. I finished the sausage and moved onto the bacon as mother started cracking eggs into the bowl, then I worked on chopping up the winter tomatoes. Mother started whisking up the eggs, so I took down a round of cheese and started cutting off small slivers of cheese. Once the whisking was done all of the other ingredients were added to the eggs and mixed around a little more. The frypan was placed directly onto the metal plate that rested on top of the fire with a little piece of butter to grease it. I poured a little bit of mixture onto the frypan and sat on my haunches watching the egg slowly cook from the bottom up. Once it had cooked sufficiently, I slipped a spatula underneath one edge and flipped one side over the other.
"You'll have to pack everything you might need before we head to church," Mother reminded me.
"Yes Mother," I answered her, wondering how I should take them.
As if reading my mind, Mother stated "Your Father has an old pack, you can pack your things into there and take it with you."
"Thank you Mother," I replied, flipping the egg turnover to ensure the other side was properly cooked.
Once the egg turnover was cooked on the bottom I lifted it up onto a metal plate and put the plate on the high rack to keep warm. I added a little more butter into the pan and poured another portion of mixture. I hadn't noticed her go, but I did notice Mother return with an old leather backpack. It was well worn, with two straps to go over shoulders and a flap on the top to keep the opening protected.
"Here," she said, presenting me with the pack with a smile, "I'll finish making the turnovers, you pack the bag and wake your sisters."
I accepted the pack eagerly with thanks and went into our room to pack my belongings. Three dresses (excluding my best one that I would change into before church) went into the bottom as well as four pairs of woolen stockings. Some ribbons and leather hair ties went on top of them, as well as my hair brush and a new pair of shoes. A nightgown, woolen blanket and a woolen shawl soon had the pack almost filled. My movements had not disturbed my sleeping siblings at all, so I slowly crept up to first Illia and then Kara, gently waking them up.
They each blinked awake in turn, letting out a big yawn and stretching their arms above their heads before crawling out of bed.
"Come girls," I said to them gently, "time to get ready for the day. We've got egg turnovers for breakfast."
They both brightened up at this revelation, they were one of their favourite foods for breakfast also.
"Illia, on the way back from the outhouse could you pick some of the long-grass from the garden?" I asked, long-grass added a nice flavour to egg dishes and would be a good chopped finely and sprinkled on top of the egg turnovers.
"I wanna pick the long-grass!" Kara exclaimed with huff.
I smiled at the two, "Okay Kara, you may both pick some long-grass, but only five pieces each. How many is five?"
Kara thought for a moment before she held out her entire hand to me with her fingers and thumb spread out.
"That's right. Good girl," I praised, ruffling her hair "off with you now."
She beamed and me before scarpering off after Illia. I left the bag where it was for now, as I'd put this dress in once I changed into my good dress. I realised with a huff that I'd packed my brush and ribbons down near the bottom of the pack and reached in past all of the things to pull them out without having to pull each item out. I left the brush and a green ribbon on top of the pack. I was pleased that it was the green one i had pulled out, it was my favourite; a gift from Mother for my twelfth name day.
I went back out into the kitchen to see that Mother had finished another four turnovers. Jocam followed me in and I could hear the other boys running outside.
"Turnovers?" he asked, excitedly and I answered in the affirmative.
He looked to be about to say something, but stopped and looked a little ashamed. I guessed that it would have been something along the lines of 'you should be going away more often.' He'd managed to stop blurting out the first thing that popped into his head more often lately. If only we could fix Brahdi from the habit.
Once everything was prepared and everybody was seated, we started eating breakfast. I ate somberly, thinking about how this would be the last breakfast for an entire nine days that we would eat all together. That it would not be such a regular occurrence after today. It was such a little thing, but it was something that was done every single day for as long as I could remember, excepting of course for a few days here and there after Mother had given birth (but even then, we had brought breakfast into her while she was convalescing in bed.)
Then of course, Kara came out with "So… are you excited Sharein?"
I finished my mouthful and smiled at her, "Yes, a little, and a little nervous."
Mother and Father both looked at me with smiles.
"You'll do fine, Sharein," Mother reassured me.
"I'll do my best, but I hope that will be good enough," I answered.
Mother patted my hand, "You just pay attention to everything the Wizard Malkarov says, you've always been very quick to pick up anything new. Just be respectful, and treat him as you would us. I don't know how it works with Wizards of course, but in normal apprenticeships the Master takes on all responsibility for you just as a parent does their child. He's always seemed a kind man, what little we've seen of him."
"I will Mother," I answered her.
We ate in silence for a few more moments until Father started talking to Jocam about things that needed to be done in the next few days and conversation continued in that theme for the rest of breakfast.
Once breakfast was over, Illia and I helped Mother clean up before we went back to our bedrooms to get ready for church. I changed out of my dress into my good one, brushed my hair and tied it up with the green ribbon before I packed the dress and brush into my pack. Illia had already gotten changed and brushed and tied her hair,, so I helped brush Kara's hair before tying it back with her ribbon. Once done, they ran out the door. I took a moment to look around the room before I hefted my pack up over one shoulder and made my way out to the front of the house to the cart. Mother held her hand out for the pack and I handed it to her before climbing into the back. Father and the boys led Aloise horse out to the road where the Meadowbroeks were already waiting. Missus Meadowbroek climbed in the front with Mother and Kara while Illia moved over to sit in the back as Mari climbed up to join us. Once Father and the boys had joined Master Meadowbroek we set off for Easthaven.
"Are you excited Sharein?" Mari asked me after a moment, "I'm ever so excited for you."
"I feel some trepidation," I disclosed with a wry smile, "but yes, I am very excited also. It just feel so… big. Such a big momentous occasion."
"I'm very excited for you as well Sharein," Illia exclaimed, "I can't wait until I see everyone in class and I can tell them that my big sister is going to be a wizard!"
Mother and Missus Meadowbroek both laughed from the front, which prompted Mari and I to giggle a little ourselves. Illia looked a little put out by everyones reactions so I reached over to give her a hug which mollified her a little.
Mari and I continued to talk about inconsequential things for a while, with Illian chiming in with her own observations. I realised quickly that Illia must have been preparing herself for the role of 'eldest daughter' now that I wouldn't be around much more. It filled me with a small sense of pride to see her getting herself ready to step into my shoes and with that revelation I realised that I'd been training her for the past year almost as much as Mother had been. I was sure that with me gone, she would probably start getting up earlier to help Mother with breakfast and help clean up.
At about the halfway point, Mari leant across to me and whispered, "I'm very excited also."
It wasn't too hard to guess why, but instead I asked, "And why would that be?"
I must have been a bit too obvious, for Mari let out a little huff of annoyance, "Oh poo. You've already guessed. Well, in any case, I believe that it shan't be long until Tomas asks Father for permission to marry me."
"Really?" Illian exclaimed loudly and Mari shot her a look of annoyance.
Illian looked a bit contrite and I couldn't help but notice Mother looking askance at Missus Meadowbroek, who just gave her a nod in reply.
I leaned closer to give Mari a hug, "Well I am ever so excited for you in return. But you must promise me that when it does happen you must come straight to me, even if it means braving the Wizard's Tower."
"Oh I shall," Mari promised, "even if it means that the Wizard Malkarov will turn me into a frog!"
I let out a giggle, "Well, if that happens, I shall just have to convince him to turn Tomas into a frog also."
And we all three giggled almost all of the rest of the way to Easthaven.
I hardly paid any attention at all to Father Mattia's sermons. My presence in the church just reminded me of how much I missed Shard, but the closer he got to the end it was slowly replaced by nervousness about what was shortly to come. I think that I missed a couple of 'All Hail the Light's, but Mother didn't say anything. Curiously, I wondered if I should even be saying it at all. I couldn't very well say 'All Hail the Dark' though, not in church. Once church was over and we had headed outside, Father gave me a long hug. A little surprisingly Jocam gave me one straight after, which prompted all of my other brothers and sisters to hug me simultaneously as well. Father led them all off to the Common Paddock as Mother escorted me to the Wizard's Tower.
When we reached the great door of the tower, Mother knocked the door knocker and after a short moment the door opened. This time the Wizard Malkarov was standing on the other side.
For a few moments nobody said anything and I looked at Mother, a little unsure about what was going on. She seemed to be thinking about something. Quickly though, she seemed a little more sure of herself.
"Master Wizard," she addressed Malkarov, "I Aloise Askilain am here to present to you my eldest daughter Sharein Askilain. Sharein wishes to petition for apprenticeship under you until such a time as you deem her worthy of being a Master Wizard in her own right."
Malkarov raised one eyebrow in a gesture of curiosity before he responded carefully, "I, Master Wizard Malkarov do hereby accept the petition of Sharein Askilain. I shall take Sharein as my own until such a time as I declare her a Master Wizard in her own right."
Mother let out a small sigh of relief next to me as Malkarov stepped aside gesturing me to enter. I turned to Mother, who quickly enveloped me in a tight hug. When she released me, she gave me a kiss on the forehead and handed me my pack. I stood there for a moment, just looking at her. I could tell that she was on the verge of tears, which made me start to tear up also. Once she saw that, she gave me another kiss on the cheek and a gentle push towards the doorway. Slowly I walked into my new home.
AUTHORS NOTE:
Thank you everyone for reading!
Thank you so much for your review Veor Hrdenda, I'm glad you've been enjoying it!
