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A Dice Roll Away - Chapter 53

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Leo woke. His whole body was tingling. And he urgently felt the call of nature. It was dark – there was a single candle burning near the room he was in – a room with four beds in it, it was not where he had fallen asleep. Sitting in a chair next to the candle, he saw Lucille sleeping. He climbed out of bed. He was wearing a light coloured robe that went all the way down to his feet – even further actually – it might have even been white, it was hard to tell with the little light available and took a couple of steps. He felt weak but not so weak as he couldn't walk. But when he tried to creep over to the doorway, his movements were clumsy and he made enough noise that he saw Lucille wake up. She stood up and stepped over to him. “Get back in bed.”

“I need the latrina.”

“Get back in bed and I'll get you a chamber pot.”

“No,” said Leo. “I need to walk.” It was not embarrassment or anything like that. Even though he felt weak, he could also feel a kind of flickering energy at the tips of his fingers and his toes, and also everywhere where his joints were. At least his knees, his elbows, his shoulders and his ankles. Somehow he had the feeling that if he lay back down, he would start to hurt. He did not know how he knew this, but he knew it. But Lucille didn't.

“You need to get back into bed.” She began to push him towards the bed, and she was stronger than he was. She would have been stronger even if he hadn't felt weaker than normal, but as it was she was much stronger. She pushed him right up to the bed.

“All right,” said Leo. “Go and get the pot. I'll wait here.”

She stared at him. “You won't, will you?”

“No. Unless you're planning on tying me to the bed.”

“I wish I could. All right. But you have to be really quiet, because if we get caught, I'm the one who will be in the most trouble.”

“You could just pretend I snuck past you while you were sleeping.”

“Hmmm... tempting. If I wouldn't get into trouble for sleeping when I am on duty. But honestly, Leo, I'm not sure you're going to make it there and back. Perfidy...” she stopped.

“What about Perfidy?” Leo felt alarmed at the mention of her name, suddenly remembering how sick she was. How had she not been the first thing he had thought about on waking?

“She's fine,” said Lucille. “She will be, anyway. But when she woke up a while ago, she insisted she had to see if you were all right, and once she got in here, she couldn't walk any further and had to be carried back.”

“Do you know if Blinda is all right?”

“She's sharing a room with Perfidy. She's been brought here just to be safe. Both Sister Carida and your Mistress Marta have said she's fine, she just needs what you all need. Rest and food. And she needs less than you. Now come on. If we're going to go, we go now. You're wasting energy.”

Lucille picked up the candle and led him through a hallway, then down the stairs into the cellar where he knew there was a latrina from his previous visit. She showed him to it. He was beginning to feel very tired again, but he tried not to show it. Lucille said, “I'll give you privacy if you want, but I'm going to be calling your name every half a minute and if you don't answer, I'm coming straight back. And I'm taking the candle. I should have brought two.” She stepped away. He could see her because she had the candle, but he was sure she couldn't see him. He did what he needed to do answering her periodic calls – it was awkward because of the length of the robe he was wearing – and then called out. “I'm done.” She came back, took him to a basin where she made him wash his hands, and then she lead him back to the stairs. They seemed so steep, but he struggled up them, and managed to get back to his room. He felt lightheaded as he climbed back into the bed. Lucille left him for a moment, then came back with a block of cheese. “Eat this.”

Leo bit into it. It was softer than any cheese he had tasted before and he liked it. “What time is it, do you know?”

“A little after midnight.”

“And you're not allowed to sleep?”

“I'm supposed to be keeping an eye on you. That's how you know you're all right, Leo. If you were in any danger, they'd have somebody much better sitting with you.”

“Who is sitting with Perfidy and Blinda?”

“Sister Carida.”

“Doesn't that mean...”

“No, it doesn't. Honestly, Leo, it doesn't. Sister Carida often sits with whoever is the sickest person we have in over night, but that doesn't mean they are necessarily all that sick. I know Sister Carida. If she was worried about Perfidy, she'd be doing a lot more than just sitting down. Now you need to try and sleep.”

And then it was daylight. Leo realised he had fallen asleep – or he had travelled into the future in the blink of an eye. He sat up and he saw an oblate he did not know sitting where Lucille had been sitting during the night. She was one of the oldest and thinnest women he had ever seen in his life. She saw he was awake.

“Good morning,” she said.

“Good morning, Sister?” He thought that was the right term.

“How do you feel?”

“All right, I think.”

“Let's see if you can stand up.”

She walked over as Leo climbed out of bed. He felt a lot stronger than he had. Not quite back to normal, but pretty close. “I think I'm all right.”

The oblate pointed at where his clothing lay on another bed. “Then dress.”

“Do you know if Perfidy is all right?”

“She's out of bed. Not as spry as you, but she was much sicker. That's why I want you dressed. She needs to see that you are better. I ask you honestly – would you say you are well?”

Leo knew the question was important. “I'm all right. But I'm still quite tired and pretty weak.”

“Try not to show that to Perfidy. She will get better faster if she isn't wasting energy worrying about you.”

“Is Blinda all right?”

“Yes, she's absolutely fine. She will be going home after breakfast.”

When Leo was dressed – including picking up the dice which had been placed in a pouch on a small belt, he wondered who had done that - he was taken into a room just next door, where he got a good look at Perfidy. She was dressed and sitting at a table devouring a plate of meat and eggs and sausages. She had never looked so thin – she was always very skinny, but she looked so much thinner than she had the day before. Blinda was sitting on the other side of the table – and she looked a little thinner too, but nothing like Perfidy did. Blinda hadn't been skinny before – not that she had been fat, just not skinny. Now she looked a little thinner, but she did not look sick. Perfidy saw him looking at them – and pointed at another chair. “You need to eat too.” Mistress Marta was also sitting at the table, but was not eating. Leo took a seat opposite her. He realised that the oblate had left, leaving the four of them alone. Leo said.

“What do I look like?”

Mistress Marta smiled slightly. “An unusually clean little boy. Some might call you cute but only on general principles. You're a little thinner than you were a weak ago, but whatever else they did to you in the palace they'd been feeding you more than they needed to, so while you could always stand to be a little heavier, you're not too bad. Blinda and you had more to protect you than Perfidy did. Both physically and psychically – I think.”

“You think?” asked Blinda.

Mistress Marta nodded. “You understand quite a bit, Blinda. Tell us what you think.”

“Well, I'm better fed than Leo or Perfidy... that's the physical. The psychical... at midnight last night, I felt the surge, Mistress. And I hadn't done any magic yesterday. So something else...”

“Had taken power from you. That's the nature of the curse. It drains such power first. Leo... last night, around midnight. Did something happen to you?”

“I woke up. I needed the latrina.”

“Is that all?”

“No... I felt all sort of tingly. Like... oh, I don't know. Like if you sit on your hand for a while, it goes to sleep. And then it wakes up you get all pins and needles. I felt that all over – well, not all over. But in parts of me.”

Mistress Marta said, “What you felt, Leo, was something some of us call 'potentia'. It's the power that lets us use sorcery. We don't completely understand it – we may barely understand it at all. But it replenishes at midnight. Feeling the surge is one of the steps towards becoming a sorcerer.”

Perfidy dropped her knife with a clatter on the table. Mistress Marta turned to her. “I know you don't much like the idea, Perfidy. But it's a fact. Leo has too much ability... consider it a gift from God, if you like. Talk to Father Rosas.

It's unusual for it to happen in somebody as young as you, but not unheard of. We're going to have to step up your studies.”

“Does that mean I will be able to cast magic now?”

“No. At least I'd be astounded if it did. Blinda, you get the surge now everyday if you have done magic?”

“Yes, Mistress.”

“Are you casting daily?”

“No, Mistress.”

“You're going to start. Moonglow every evening before you go to bed. Read for ten minutes by its light if you like. You're not fully into your power yet – at least, I'd be astonished if you were – but I suspect you are now at the stage where you can cast at least one spell every day. Leo – even if you understood a spell well enough to cast it – I doubt you could do so more than once in a month. You felt the surge so you lost potentia yesterday – but you've had years to build it up. Still... we need to get you learning Moonglow, properly, so we can start exploring that.”

“Does it have to be Moonglow?” asked Leo.

“Leo, I'm warning you – you're well enough for me to birch...”

“No!” said Leo. “Not that one. Not that spell. But does it have to be Moonglow? Mistress, it's useless. Well, not useless but... can't I focus on the healing spell instead? It seems to me that at least that one is useful...”

“It's a much harder spell, Leo. And it requires a knowledge of the body which is a lot of study.”

Leo shrugged. “How long will it be before I can cast a spell?”

“I don't know – but years, most likely. You might even be able to use a scroll now, but unaided – you are faster than any pupil I've ever had but there are limits.”

“Then I have time.”

And Perfidy spoke. “And I'd help learn the body. I have to learn it myself.”

Mistress Marta looked at her. “You'd help him?”

“Yes. If he's going to have these powers, at least using them for healing... I can't object to that.”

Mistress Marta stood up and walked over to the windows. “All right, Leo. I want you studying Moonglow as your most important thing to study. But I won't forbid you from studying the lesser healing spell if I have your word – your ironclad word – that you won't treat this as some sort of excuse to study any other spell without my express permission. And understand that Dragonbreath is expressly forbidden.”

“Yes, all right.”

“Your ironclad word?”

“Yes.”

“And do you understand what I will do to you if you break that word?”

“I think so.”

“Imagine what you are thinking – and then imagine anything else I might do. And you might start to come close.”

“I won't break my word.”
© 2014 - 2024 drednort
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drednort's avatar
I have had other work on that I couldn't delay. I will get back to writing after this next weekend. There may be a chapter before that, but only if I wind up with unexpected spare time.