027 - Etiquette, Objectives, Back In The Tracking Business

At The Sorceress’s instruction, Roxanne had stayed in her chambers, getting fresh bedding and other things accomplished for her to take residence. In doing this she had gotten to know some of the pages and how things worked here in the Palace complex. A second assignment she had been given was to get a costume cut to her frame and figure. So a tailor had been sent for. Roxanne ended up with three costumes of less than translucent fabric, but of the same cut, sized for her slim, tall frame. In the mean time, The Sorceress had gone to attend to her own duties.

When The Sorceress returned for the evening, she brought with her an entourage of stewards. She opened the door to Rox’s suite, and called out.

“Student, come with me. Your first lesson begins now.”

Roxanne turned from the bedding, and walked swiftly to the door. She fell into step behind and to the left of The Sorceress, and followed to the second set of doors on the right of the main hallway. Here the stewards set out a formal diner on the table. Roxanne watched as one seated The Sorceress in a chair on the side, and was then bidden herself to the seat immediately to her left.

The Sorceress spoke. “Student attend; your course of study for this evening and until these stewards are satisfied is local etiquette at a formal table. Watch and learn.”

Rox kept her hands in her lap, then noticed that The Sorceress kept hers flat on the table, and quickly Rox did likewise. A small porcelain plate of vegetables was placed before each of them. Rox first watched as The Sorceress daintily ate these finger-food nibbles. Roxanne ate two vegetables before speaking.

“This is my first real meal since being kidnapped, and I have not had lunch. I may eat a bit faster than is polite.” Rox munched into a crunchy vegetable slice with some relish.

“You will address me as ‘My Lady,’ as you have been previously instructed.” The Sorceress sniffed then softened slightly, maintaining the decorum of the table.

As the meal progressed, the mood lightened, The Sorceress let down her stuffy guard and showed that she was a kind, fun loving, and thoughtfully concerned woman. The stewards here all knew her and were comfortable enough that some private matters were mentioned and discussed. However Rox was allowed to steer the conversation, mostly to get her up to speed on happenings. As one course was replaced, Rox got to one nagging question.

“My Lady, what is your job here? You sit at The King’s left hand, you order guards about, and have a wing of the building all to yourself. Yet you do not wear the robes that the ministers wore. You do appear favored with some jewelry, yet no signet rings; and you practice magic with confidence and ease.” Rox finished her summary with a sip of the drink of the moment.

The Sorceress smiled as she considered how to answer. “I am…The King’s Head Mistress, and the Chief of his Harem; and I am his most trusted non-political advisor. I also happen to be a practicing sorceress, ranked among The School of the Orders.”

They ate for a moment, with the Steward correcting Rox on which knife to use. Then The Sorceress continued.

“I supervise The King’s schedule of sleeping companions when The Queen is out of the Palace. You needn’t be concerned. He won’t touch you knowing you are another man’s. That is a small part of why you are here, and not one floor down in the ladies quarters. However while you are here, you are in my charge, and that means I get to conduct your schedule. I also advise when The Queen is not available, and when I am asked to.”

Roxanne paused with a roll. “My Lady, what will my schedule be?”

“You will study with me for a brief time during and after the morning meal. You will clean this wing, and in doing learn its layout. You will do whatever other chores I appoint. You will study with me in the afternoon when I am not in court. Evenings will vary depending on what official functions are happening. In this studying, I will be teaching you all I can, and assessing what you already know and whom else you might profitably learn from.”

Rox had one more thing to ask. “The King said something about buying my freedom. My, Lady, what did he mean by that?”

The Sorceress smiled. “I was hoping you would ask about that. While you are here, you are not quite a slave in formal bonds, but neither are you free to go yet. You will be given a stipend for you to do with as you will. Since your necessities will be taken care of as a matter of course, you can simply have it saved. When it is enough, you may then use that money to buy your freedom, leave here and go wherever you will.”

Rox took this in. “How much it that? How fast will it accumulate?”

The Sorceress let Rox’s slip pass. “The usual value of a slave is between seven hundred and fifty to one thousand local coins. You will accumulate twenty a week. If and when your husband shows up, it is all yours to do with as you will. When you have enough, if you choose, you are then free to buy yourself free, and go where you will.”

The meal lasted longer than Rox was used to, but took this in stride, learning as much as she could. As they proceed through the meal, the two women conversed on other various topics besides etiquette, and scheduling. The main topic was Rox’s history, and where she came from. The Sorceress filled in some general answers to her elf heritage. Finally The Sorceress called the lesson to an end, and dismissed all but three stewards who leave with the formal table equipment and food. Lastly The Sorceress dismisses Rox to return to her room, and rest for the evening.

“By the way,” Rox asked, as the Sorceress left, “How did you know I have a daughter?”

“Half-elves only parent to their own sex. Your body shows it has born two. For you to have two is most unordinary.”

“My second is a son.”

The Sorceress looked her over for a long moment in fascination. Finally she whispered as she turned away. “Most extra ordinary.”

*          *          *

True to his word, after they left the village, Caspian became a clogged drain of information. Some things he answered circumspectly, as if there were some ideas that had to be broached carefully. He had already told Steven where they were, galacticly. Now he gave a bit more information. As they ate breakfast at their campfire, Caspian took a stick and scratched out a crude map on the ground.

“We are here, in these foothills.” He scratched some chevrons on the ground. “We are going here first; the town I think the locals called Tonif.” He scratched a circle next to the mountains. “That is about four days travel. There we resupply, and see about getting you some better native dress. Next are the rest of these highlands, some more mountains and the subsequent foothills; several towns, the Capitol city of that kingdom, a few more towns, and the coast city.” He scratched some more chevrons, circles, and a line for the sea coast.

“From here we catch a ship and sail down the coast. We do this a few more times to get to The Kingdom of Krogg. From there we have to travel to the Capitol, Skarg, and find just where they took your kids, presuming we are not yet ahead of them by that point.” Caspian scratches another sea coast, some smaller circles and a last circle with some mountains inland of it. “After that we go there and get them. Along the way, we figure out where to take them that they will be safe.”

Steven looked at the ground. He still did not quite believe he was doing this. He had also noticed over the last few days that his eyesight was becoming more acute and the colors more vivid. Also his other senses seemed to be increasingly acute, and distracting. A tingling seamed to be across his whole body, like the ringing in ones ears; this was increasingly distracting and frustrating.

“And what Roxanne? Where is she? When do we look for her? What assurance do I have that this is all real?” He started to pace around the fire and across Caspian’s sketch, gesturing as he went. “For all I know this is just some crazy dream. I will wake up at any moment, and be back home in bed. Except that you are here with me, and I have experienced too many real things. But I may even be dreaming that.” Steven knew that ranting was out of character for him, but he had picked up some habits from Leticia in getting up and talking out problems with the walls.

Caspian stood as Steven walked passed him again. Steven continued his monologue. He reached a quick hand at Steven’s head, and plucked a hair.

“What was that for?” He rubbed his head where the hair had been plucked.

“Watch.” Caspian just started to dig through his bag, until he produced a piece of cloth that he unrolled, which had several individual hairs. He rolled it back together, and set it aside.

 “Last night we finally got into this forest. This is where I have been trying to get to since realizing I left a tracker back on Terra.”

Caspian then took a small bowl from Steven’s mess kit and walked over to one of the pine trees. He muttered something and using his knife he pealed some bark back. He held the bowl under the bark and filled it part way with thin, gooey sap. He then smoothed the bark, muttering again. He sat back down at the fire, and set the bowl on a rock. Next Caspian rummaged through his robe and pouches, until he had a small pile of ingredients. Among them was the hairs of Roxanne’s, and each of the kids, which he had picked up. What he did not need was put back away, including the kid’s hair, as he did not have enough ingredients to use for four, yet.

He combined the proper ingredients in the bowl and let it melt. Once the mix was thin enough he put Steven’s and Roxanne’s hair into individual pans and poured half the mixture over each one, muttering under his breath. He then set the two pans aside, and turned to cleaning the first one.

“As soon as those cool, I can invest them with the proper energies. That done I can determine your location and general status. As well as your wife. Combine them and ask them properly, and they can tell about your kids collectively.”

He scrubbed the pan with some dirt, and then had Cyrril belch a little fire on it. He scrubbed it a bit more, and then dunked it into the small pot of boiling water.

When the camp was packed up, they turned back to the two pans. The lumps had cooled to the touch, and came free from the pans easily. Caspian then produced some gold dust and sprinkled the flat sides of the lumps, chanting as he did. Then he carved a small rune into the back of each one. When he finished, Steven had gone off into the woods. Cyrril had curled up and was napping on a warm rock. Caspian held up the two lumps, and concentrated.

“Steven is a little ways away and still frustrated.”

Steven came back and they set out. Steven did not wait very long to ask more questions.

“So, what do you have?”

“I have two disks that I can use to track you and your wife, and use in concert to track your children. Ideally, this should be done with amber. But fresh pine sap will do.” He held his right hand out, and said a word in another strange language. He then waved the amulet back and forth. The side that was closest to Steven lit up brighter than the other side. He could also see the color shift through the spectrum and stabilize. Caspian looked from it to him and smiled.

“Good. It says you are healthy and very close.”

He held out the other one and spoke the same word. Steven recognized that it was conjugated differently.

The disk did not glow as strong, and shifted quicker, then settled to a slightly different color. “Your wife is a good distance that way and in general good health.”

Caspian then put the two disks together, gold sides touching, and spoke the same word conjugated a third way. The two halves flickered in concert, and then settled.

“Your children are close together, and in generally good health. They are a long distance that way.” He pointed south, compared to the path of the sun. “We will be going that way by boat. They are probably going by caravan, as they are more south then west. We might even get to Krogg in time to catch the caravan before it gets to Skarg. By then we will have figured out what to do.”

Steven seemed to visibly relax, if only slightly, now that he had some theoretical information that he could work with.

As they walked, Caspian asked the next question. “By the way, have you noticed that you are no longer speaking English?”