AUTHORS NOTES:

Once again, thank you so much for the reviews. Especially Drouppi and Archer1eye!

Chapter 24

12th Day of Late Winter 768 n.c

I woke up happy and refreshed. I was so happy that Shard had paid me a visit, that she had come to talk to me and reassure me. Just the knowledge that I had nothing to worry about with my spellcasting peculiarities was a weight off my mind. The sky outside my window was starting to get light, so I hopped up and washed myself quickly with some water from the bath tub. I decided that today was the day that I would wear the trousers and shirt. From what I had seen of his personality over the previous two days I didn't think that he would be the sort to worry about traditions when it came to what I wore.

I pulled the trousers up and marvelled at Mother's work. They felt so comfortable, hugging my body like a second skin. Once dressed I headed up to the kitchen to prepare breakfast, realising that Malkarov would likely be up soon. I decided upon porridge; I found one jar with some crushed long grain and another with some crushed oats. I poured twice the amount of oats as long grain into a large pot and added enough milk to cover the grains. I found another jar with some mixed dried fruits, of different types cut up finely. I took a handful, they were very sticky and stuck together and I crumbled them into the porridge. I put the pot down onto the rack slightly off the fire, so that it would heat up slowly.

While I waited for it to heat up I decided to run through one of the two spells I had learned the day before. I had already cast the light spell successfully twice and hadn't yet managed the manipulate elements spell, so that was the one I decided to attempt again.

I recalled the phrase for the spell and felt the flashes occur simultaneously. It was just as easy to push the magic down my arm and this time I felt an echo from outside my body as it got closer to my hand. Something was answering the magic. I pushed the magic out my hand and towards the echo. I felt the flash explode within me, the tell-tale feeling that I had successfully cast a spell, and then nothing. I opened my eyes and looked around, I could still faintly feel the echo of magic nearby but couldn't tell exactly where it was coming from.

I realised that I had better stir the porridge a little and took up a wooden spoon, stepping over towards the pot.

*Creeeeeeeeeeeaaaaaaak* came the unexpected sound of a cupboard door opening behind me. I froze, spoon held out halfway to the pot. I heard a wet, fleshy sounding *splat* from behind me. I felt the little hairs on my arms stand up stiff and I felt a tingle at the back of my neck. Time seemed to slow. Ever so slowly I turned around to look in the direction of the sounds.

The first thing I noticed was that one of the cupboards was open, the last one. On the floor in front of it was the chicken carcass, leaves scattered in the cupboard and around it. I stared at the scene for a moment, watching for movement, for the cause. If something pushed the chicken out of the cupboard, perhaps it was still in there?

Nothing moved.

I took a step backwards, towards the stairs.

A shiver went through me when the chicken carcass moved.

It pushed itself up onto it's drumsticks using it's wings.

It. Stood. Up.

I ran for the landing and paused briefly to look back towards the kitchen. It was following me, walking unsteadily on it's 'legs', even in the brief moment that I had paused it had made up half the space between us. It had worked it's way up to a run, flapping it's small pointy 'wings' as it came straight for me!

With a loud shriek I sprinted down the stairs, almost tripping over and falling the remainder to the next lowest level. I turned the corner quickly and paused at the doors to our bedrooms. I watched the landing like a hawk. From the stairs, I heard a *splat* *splat* *splat* sound and the chicken carcass soon *splatted* into view on the landing. It must have fallen down the stairs. I paused hesitantly, until it lifted itself back up once more and started walking towards me again.

Quickly I reached out my left arm and opened Malkarov's door and rushed into his room screaming.

They looked up from their positions on the bed, identical expressions of shock on their faces. Malkarov was kneeling near the end of the bed, his naked bottom raised in the air. The other man was laying on his back, his erect member pointing up from his body.

Three things happened simultaneously: I screamed out "Help me!" as I ran into the room, pointing behind me. Malkarov rolled off the bed away from me, dragging the blanket with him. He landed on the floor with a thud. The other man grabbed a pillow off the bed and slammed it down onto his crotch, he then let out a loud exclamation of pain in a language that I didn't recognise.

There wasn't enough time for me to take note of what was in his room, but the bed appeared to provide the largest barrier. I ran around it quickly, crouched down and peeked over the top towards the door, the other occupants of the room briefly forgotten.

Malkarov sat up next to me, blanket wrapped around him and looked towards the door.

"What is it? What's wrong?" he asked urgently.

I pointed fearfully, my hand wavering, towards the door just as the chicken corpse appeared in the hall through the doorway.

I watched frozen as it turned very, very slowly towards Malkarov's bedroom.

I heard Malkarov call out words of magic and felt the flash of his magic from immediately next to me. Six, glowing arrows appeared above the bed in front of us and shot off quick as a flash towards the unusually animated chicken. Before I could blink, every single arrow impacted upon the chicken carcass, lifting it up into the air and shredding it into pieces. The pieces slammed into my bedroom door and remained frozen there for a brief moment before dropping to the floor.

I stared at the pieces of meat for a few moments longer, not daring to come out from behind Malkarov's protective furniture.

"Is… is it dead?" I asked.

"It's definitely dead," said the stranger on the bed.

I looked over at him when he spoke and realised with a shock a detail that I had overlooked when first I saw him. He was an elf! His lithe body (from what I could see that was not covered by a pillow) was hairless, as was his face. His long straight, golden coloured hair was parted around pointed ears. His face was thin and slightly longer than a human's, with high cheekbones. His skin was very pale, with an almost silver sheen to it.

"Sharein…" Malkarov said slowly from next to me, "...what was that?"

"Uh," I began, "I tried the manipulate elements spell while I waited for the porridge to…"

The porridge!

Urgently I pulled myself to my feet, "the porridge will burn!" I shouted as I ran out of the door.

I slowed dramatically once I was in the hallway, stepping carefully around the splattered meat before I ran back up to the kitchen.

I was still stirring the porridge when Malkarov and his guest (both thankfully dressed) came up the steps.

The action of stirring the porridge had a calming effect on me and I was able to start to process the things that had occurred so quickly. I realised that I had made the chicken corpse come to life, that was my fault. I realised with a flush of embarrassment what I had seen when I opened Malkarov's bedroom door and the implications of that, or at least some of them. I realised that I should probably have not just run into his room, that I was entirely the cause of the embarrassment that I was currently feeling and was likely to increase momentarily.

"The porridge is ready, thankfully not burned. I've added some dried fruit to it and with a nice dash of honey it should be quite nice. If you have some, ground egg-nut seeds go quite well." I prattled, hoping to delay the inevitable as long as possible. I spoke into the porridge, rather than look at them any more than my initial furtive glance.

"Serve it up then Sharein, then come and sit down so that we can… discuss the events of this morning," Malkarov said sternly.

I stiffened little with guilt, aware from his obviously angry tone that I was definitely in trouble.

"Yes, sir," I responded, lifting the pot off the rack and setting it onto the table. I collected bowls and spoons and set the table, then served up the porridge. Malkarov had already fixed us all hot drinks and I sat down tentatively in my usual spot. The stranger sat down opposite me, to Malkarov's left.

I kept my eyes on my porridge and waited for Malkarov to tell me to pack up my things and go home to my parents.

"Eat, Sharein," he said and I mechanically brought a spoonful of porridge to my mouth.

Malkarov let out a sigh. Here it was, about to come.

"We need to talk about what you saw this morning," he said slowly, "between Alladrial and I."

"It's okay," I said. I didn't really care about *that*, I just wanted him to hurry up and give me the bad news.

"I don't think you understand Sharein," he said, "If the town knew about us, they would probably run me out, Wizard or not. Not even Father Mattias could prevent it."

Oh. But I did understand. He was worried that I would tell someone about him. If I didn't trust Mari as much as I did, as much as she'd proven to deserve that trust, I'd worry about that as well.

"I understand completely," I reassured him.

I was just about to continue when he said, "No you don't."

I frowned at him, and reiterated "Yes, I do. Father Mattias saw that I wasn't interested in boys and would have suggested the priesthood, except that I didn't have the calling to serve. That's when he suggested an apprenticeship with you."

"Oh," he said, simply with a far-away look.

His guest Alladrial started laughing, a clear musical laughter.

Malkarov shot him a frowning look, which only seemed to make him laugh louder.

"So, what happened this morning?" He asked me.

"Well, I was waiting for the porridge to heat up so I thought I'd try the manipulate elements spell again. It worked, but I couldn't tell what it had done. I was about to stir the porridge and the cupboard door opened and the chicken fell… or I suppose jumped out. Then it chased me," I explained.

Malkarov giggled a little, "It didn't chase you to get you."

"It didn't?" I asked, confused.

"No, it followed you to stay close enough for your spell to continue affecting it," he explained, "You raised a zombie chicken."

"I what?" I asked, confused.

"Necromancy is considered a sub-school of the school of ritual magic," he explained, "it deals with bringing the dead back to life, or I should say un-life. Depending upon the ritual the re-animated corpses or things may be able to obey simple commands or may in fact be able to think for themselves. Your seeming had the same effect when you cast manipulate elements. It wasn't a true zombie as such, the spell probably wouldn't be powerful enough to reanimate a human corpse, but was obviously enough for a chicken."

"Your Celestine church," Alladrial spoke up, his accent was as musical as his laughter, "does not look favourably upon the art of necromancy. I should be wary of using that spell where a priest might see you."

I nodded to him to show that I understood. My life seemed to be nothing but secrets now, I had to keep Shard a secret, I had to keep my seeming secret and I had to keep secret the fact that I could use magic without components.

"Oh, silly me," Malkarov admonished himself, "Alladrial this is my apprentice Sharein, Sharein this is my… friend Alladrial."

I smiled at him, "Pleased to meet you Alladrial," even as he said "It's a pleasure."

Alladrial turned to Malkarov with a raised eyebrow, "Friend?"

"Okay, okay," Malkarov muttered, "something somehow more than friend. You could say that we're 'walking out'."

I'd suggest that they shouldn't have been doing what they were doing until they were married, but how hypocritical would that have been?

"Alladrial is the one I mentioned who I might invite to cook for us, but honestly that was just a story to justify his visits," Malkarov explained, "and I invited him today to discuss with him your difficulties and eccentricities."

"Your seeming is not completely unheard of Sharien," Alladrial explained, "there have been others on record as well as those whose seeming is positive material. Unfortunately, unlike even the rare quasi-elemental seemings there is no record of how your seeming will manifest itself with any given spell, so we shall have to test to find out. As for your other… problem. There is no record of that ever happening before. I'd suggest being careful about who you tell about it."

Alladrial turned to Malkarov, "and I can only hope that you have not already sent a missive to your guild telling them about it?"

Malkarov frowned at Alladrial, "what sort of question is that?"

"The sort of question asked by someone who knows you well enough to know how often you will jump before looking," Alladrial said in what I guessed was his equivalent of a deadpan tone

"I'm shocked," Malkarov stated loudly, in a tone that I wasn't too sure was serious, "shocked and offended!".

"Did you teach Sharein how to cancel her manipulate elements spell before you taught her how to cast it?"Alladrial asked.

"Well of *course* she knows that to cancel it, all she has to do is sever the link between her magic and the element affected by it," Malkarov said, with such a look of pleading that I almost immediately backed him up.

Alladrial however, saw the look and recognised it for the lie it was; he merely muttered "idiot" in a somehow loving way.

Once breakfast was finished and cleaned up, Malkarov instructed me to clean up the chicken pieces and dispose of them by dropping them into the in-house. He handed me a money pouch and instructed me to head into town for the things I'd need to cook dinner.

"Stop by the Pig and Wheelbarrow first to let Missus Rose know that we shall require lunch for three today and then collect the basket at midday on your way back," he said, before he and Alladrial retired to Malkarov's bedroom.