AUTHORS NOTES

Archer1eye: Ridiculously blunt, she's going to give Sharein a heart attack one of these days. Haha! Some more on the other women of the guild in this chapter, but not all happy. As for andrian… he will get what's coming to him. There will be something… interesting in the next chapter after this one, more of Castlemere outside of the guildhall.

Slyksylva: Hahaha! Shard has a LOT to learn. I'm enjoying all of the facepalm moments 3

Chapter 66

22nd Day of Middle Spring 768 n.c

I laughed nervously as Jossa looked between the two of us shrewdly.

"Are you…two... together?" She asked Shard.

"Oh yes," Shard admitted happily.

Jossa looked at my embarrassment and laughed, "It's okay. We don't mind. So are they," she added, jerking a thumb towards Taura and Venn, "Taura's always been that way and Venn... well, you know… after."

I looked at the two of them in surprise, "really?"

The two women nodded with slight smiles, Venn's slightly sadder than Taura's happy reassuring one.

"Do you have to hide it?" I asked, "from the Guild?"

Taura nodded and her smile disappeared, "everywhere but here, in this bathhouse. All the female wizards and apprentices know and don't care, but I can't imagine how the men would behave if they found out."

"Are you all apprentices?" I asked curiously.

Jossa laughed, "No, not all of us. Venn, Taura and I am but Arin isn't, she's a wizard in her own right. The bath-house is kind of neutral territory, in here there are no apprentices or wizards. Once we remove our robes, we are all the same. How can you relax properly when you are all worried about offending a wizard?"

"You called her a wizard, but Yorsha a wizardess," I pointed out.

"Well, traditionally anyone who practices guild magic, our magic," Jossa explained, "has been referred to as a wizard, no matter whether they are a man or a woman. But Yorsha began demanding to be referred to as a wizardess when she had her presentation and since then there have been a few others. Arin never said anything after her's so we've just called her a wizard since."

Arin spoke up then, quietly, "I'm not that long past my presentation."

"But you still took it," Jossa retorted, "and passed." She then added in a sly slightly joking manner, "You'll be taking on an apprentice of your own soon, no doubt."

Arin frowned and rattled off her corrections in a very monotonous tone, "I've still got a long way to go before I take on an apprentice of my own. I have to finish studying Protection and figure out what I want to do with the rest of my life. There's no point taking on an apprentice if I don't decide to set up in a town or village somewhere."

Jossa merely smiled at her reaction and sat back next to Shard. The pool was stepped on its length, just high enough that we could sit and be mostly submerged. For me it came up to almost my neck, but for Jossa (who was quite tall) it left all of her large breasts completely out of the water. This left me a little embarrassed and unsure of where to look, so I mostly just tried to focus on a section of wall behind her whenever she spoke to me. Jossa reminded me so much of Brahdi, her exuberance and lack of tact were the most telling factors; I couldn't be sure but I thought that when it wasn't darkened by the water, her hair would probably be the same shade as well. She was a tall woman, almost six foot at a guess and was probably a few years older than me. I wondered if Brahdi's mother came from Oscura and whether their shared traits might just be typical of that Baronocracy. Taura had the shortest hair of all of us, wet it only just reached her shoulders. As was common in Carn, it was the same brown as almost everyone's in Easthaven. She was getting ready to be presented and hoped that it would happen before the end of Spring. She was probably the same age as Jossa, but it was hard to tell as her face looked much younger than she behaved. Venn had the longest hair of all of us, cut with long bangs at the front and was about the same age as me. I noticed, but tried not to make it too obvious, some scars on her arms when she lifted them out of the water. I wondered what had happened to her to cause such odd cuts. She was very quiet and withdrawn, but seemed to gain confidence when in Taura's arms. Arin kept quiet by herself mostly, unless somebody addressed her or asked her a question. She was probably the same height as me, judging by how much she remained submerged and was the oldest in the pool. She was also the curviest of us all, with a healthy plumpness demonstrative of a fairly well fed and sedentary existence.

Arin swam around us to sit down next to me and asked very pointedly, "you said you were from Easthaven?"

"Yes," I confirmed.

"Where is your family from, originally?" She followed.

"My Father is from Easthaven, but my Mother is from Allarth," I answered.

"That doesn't explain it," she stated simply.

"Doesn't explain what?" I asked.

She pointed above me and then above Shard, "your hair and her hair. It's black, yet it hasn't cleaned with the water. You may have dyed it with squid ink, but that's unlikely. Blond hair like Jossa's is common in Oscura because it came from the Plainsfolk and Montlanders on the other side of the Orc lands, but I've never seen black hair. Ever."

I was impressed, I had often thought about hair colours considering the uniformity of the trait in Easthaven but had never discovered where Brahdi's blond hair had come from.

"I like it," Taura stated, "it's very exotic. So dark and mysterious."

The others agreed, causing Arin to defend herself, "I wasn't suggesting that I didn't like it!"

Jossa reassured her that they knew that she wasn't suggesting such a thing and we settled into a quiet discussion over the various wizards and apprentices currently staying in the guildhall. I didn't recognise many names until they asked me to fill them in on what Malkarov was doing. I informed them of the blower rune scheme he was working on, which produced an excited and hopeful discussion.

The other women absolutely adored the idea and all hoped that he would be kind enough to donate the scheme to the guild so that it could be installed in the bath-house. I couldn't disagree, the worst thing about a nice long soak was having to wait to get dressed or else dress in clothes that would rapidly become damp.

A high tinny chime rang out through the bath-house.

"Dinner time," Arin informed me, when she noticed my confused look, "the high chimes ring out once when breakfast, lunch or dinner are served and twice when the meal times end. All through the guild hall except the hospital."

"Sharein!" Came Malkarov's voice from over the walls, "time to hop out, I'll meet you at the stairs."

"You've been summoned," Taura said with a smile.

Shard and I got out of the pool and wiped ourselves down, squeezing out our hair as much as we could.

"Sharein, Shard! There's a comb in my cubby," Venn said to me, "feel free to borrow it to get the water and tangles out of your hair if you don't have one with you."

I thanked her and wished her a good night before heading into the changing room. Jossa and Arin got out just as we left. I found Venn's comb, sitting in front of her robes in one of the square shelves and offered it to Shard (who glanced quickly at the door before magically drying and styling her hair, poking her tongue out at me cheekily) before I used it myself, placing it back into the cubby afterwards.

Once dressed, we headed out to find Malkarov waiting for us at the bottom of the stairs. We all walked up the stairs to the ground floor, where Malkarov directed us through a set of double doors. This doorway opened up into another large chamber filled with tables and chairs, servants stood behind a counter on one side of the room offering food from pots or trays. The room could have seated the entire village of Easthaven easily. Some tables were small, surrounded by only four chairs but other tables sat six, eight or ten. Not every table was occupied, but there were a number of wizards sitting down mostly wearing a variety of robes (of various colours). Some, like me, were wearing trousers and shirts and there were a small number of women wearing dresses that consisted of a bone coloured shift with a coloured front and back apron over the top that was tied at the sides.

We followed Malkarov into the room, and collected a plate, bowl and cutlery as he did. When we made our way to the servant's counter we saw a variety of foods on display. There were three different soups to choose from: vegetable, chicken and creamy pumpkin; as well as two different types of stew (lamb and beef). Bread with fresh butter was both pre-cut or there for us to cut ourselves, a selection of cheeses and then three different roasts and roasted vegetables. Finally a selection of cakes rounded out the buffet. Servants wandered the hall pouring wine, ale or water for the wizards.

Malkarov was pleasantly surprised by the presence of the creamy pumpkin soup, so I took that as a recommendation to try it. Shard chose some chicken soup and I assumed that we could likely share our food like we had at the Inn. We each picked out pieces of different things to put on our plates and followed Malkarov to a small table. The food was delicious (although not quite up to Missus Roses' exceedingly high standards) and I had to agree with Malkarov that the pumpkin soup was the best of the lot. Shard and I did indeed pick pieces from each other's plates and although I did it a little self consciously, looking around to make sure nobody was looking at us, Shard seemed to do it without thinking at all.

I noticed Jossa and Arin come in shortly before we got up to get some cake for dessert. By that time the hall still wasn't even close to being full, but it was a lot busier. The servants had already begun to weave between the tables to collect cutlery and crockery that had been finished with. I asked Malkarov about the servants.

"There are probably around a hundred of them all together," he explained, "mostly they come from Castlemere to serve in the hopes of picking up an apprenticeship, although it's very rare to be selected that way. Most of the servants in the kitchen have been here for a long time though and get paid extra for the work they do. The Grand-Master considers their work to be more magic than what the rest of us do around here."

"Where does the guild get its money from?" I asked, wondering about the cost of employing a hundred servants.

"Wizards who go out adventuring donate some money to the guild, people who need wizards advertise through the guild and pay a fee for the privilege of doing so," Malkarov explained, "but most of the money comes from the occasional enchanted item or the application of wards and protections on business and houses around Castlemere and elsewhere. All of the mansions belonging to the nobility have wards to prevent vermin coming in, enchanted cold cupboards like my one at home and hot water makers. If I decide to release the rune scheme for my blower to the guild, then the guild will likewise sell them on to the noble houses in Castlemere."

"Jossa, Taura, Venn and Arin are hoping that you install one in the bath house at the very least," Shard said.

"That was definitely something I was considering," Malkarov replied, "I might try to trade it for the Grand-Master's visitor scheme though."

When both of us looked at him cluelessly, he laughed and explained, "it's not confirmed mind, but the Grand-Master always seems to know who is visiting him before we begin up the steps. Some of us have a theory that he created a scheme that uses illusion magic to present to him on his desk, an image of the person heading up the steps. If I could get access to that scheme I could adjust it so that I could 'see' who was at the front door to my tower before I even open the door!"

He finished up excitedly and there was a snort at the table next to us, one of the wizards there turned around in his seat and said, "are you still going on about that? I've told you a hundred times, he recognises the creak of the stairs."

He was a big man, more muscled than even the soldiers that I saw back in Isk. Rather than robes he wore trousers and an armless tunic. His scraggly brown hair met his big bushy beard in such a way that it was hard to tell where the hair ended and the beard began.

Malkarov fired back, "for the man that invented the self disposing in-house, he would not rely upon such a pedestrian means as listening to creaks!"

I got worried for a few moments, concerned that both were getting overly angry about their differing opinions. Until, that is, they both started laughing uproariously. Shard and I just stared.

"Sharein, Shard," Malkarov introduced us, "this unintelligent oaf is Yardley. We presented on the same day and both studied here together for a time. Not enchanting though, he only studied summoning."

"Don't listen to your uncreative master," the other wizard dismissed, "Summoning requires much more intellect than his… writing."

I thought Malkarov might say something in response to that insult, he was very proud of his affinity, but he just brushed it off as if it were nothing. The two continued talking, updating each other on the changes that had happened in each of their lives. After a few moments, Malkarov noticed that we had both finished and suggested that we might like to head towards the library or back to our rooms as there was no need to wait on him.

"I'll probably stay here and talk to this warrior pretending to be a wizard for a little while, then head off to visit Master Yensa before I return for bed," he explained.

"You'll need a shoulder to lean on if you are going to visit him tonight, or else you'll never be able to crawl up the steps," Yardley said jovially.

Malkarov blushed a little, "he does definitely make me drink much more than is good for me, I don't know how it never seems to affect him quite so much though."

"Oh, his own liver is long since pickled," Yardley said, "it's reached the point where he only functions normally when he's drunk and behaves drunk when he's sober."

"That," Malkarov began sternly, but then sighed and added resigningly, "may be exactly the case."

Malkarov looked to us and told us, "enjoy yourselves girls, don't make too much noise or get into too much trouble."

I nodded to Malkarov and smiled, "we won't."

We were no sooner out the door of the dining hall when I asked Shard whether she would prefer our bedroom or the library.

"How about the Library first?" Shard suggested, "but only for a little while before we return to our room?"

"That," I said, "sounds like a fabulous idea!"