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platedlizardOkay, so I'm really, really far behind this year. But, here's what I got so far. Warning. Tea Shops. And chest-bursting demons at some point in the future.
Alana looked up when the bell on the door rang, a pleasant smile and words of greeting freezing on her lips. The first man though the door wasn’t anything out of the usual for dockside district, he was a guardsmen, possibly from one of the city regiments or even the Mage-Guard. Wait, definitely Mage-Guard, the little glow of magic about him was absolutely indicative. His short black hair and hazel eyes spoke of noble blood, perhaps from the wrong side of the sheets. If so, he didn’t seem embittered by it, his open countenance was welcoming and he met her delayed greeting with one of his own. It was the second man who froze the breath in her throat.
Noble, yes, there was no doubt about it, and not just one of the half-bloods or lesser lords that occasionally came by. No, by the cut of his clothing (plain, but well tailored and was that silk?) the gold enameled clip holding back his black hair, enameled with the colors of one of a scion of the Four Houses, and, above all, by the power that swept into her tea shop with him. Magic. And not the level of the average corner store magus or even the Mage-Guard. No, this was the power of those who could trace their linage to the Heavens.
In her little dockside tea shop.
She forced herself to smile at him, and showed them to her most ‘private’ table, the one in the corner by the hearth, and took their orders. This time of the day the tea shoppe was usually empty, mid-afternoon, after lunch but before the dinner crowd. She took their orders and all but fled to the back, the noble’s magic all but choking her with its intensity. Most people would have barely noticed it, but she was more sensitive then usual and the oppressive atmosphere felt like it was crushing her.
With a shuddering breath she forced herself to pour the hot (not boiling, hot) water into the tea post, but the ‘best’ she had was which probably didn’t at all compare to the pots the noble lord used at home, but were quite serviceable. At least her tea was good.
Papers littered the table when she came out to serve them, papers and notebooks and what looked maps of the City’s leylines.
“Here, here, and here,” the guardsman said, pointing to spot on the map. “Looks like they correspond with the storm overflow.”
“But not the sewers or drinking water lines.” The noble sat back and thanked her absently as she slid the tray into place and poured for the both of them. His power swirled slowly, almost thoughtfully and she hastily pulled her own in, it wasn’t a crime to be an unregistered mage, but it wasn’t encouraged, either. Not that she was trained. Alana curtsied--it had been years since she curtsied, but she still remembered how, and turned to go back to the back room. The dinner crowd would be coming in just a few hours and she needed to be ready for them.
“Hey, Miss?” the guardsman’s voice stopped her.
“Yes?” she said, returning to the table. The noble was frowning at a chart, a cup of her best tea cradled in his hand. The first man jabbed at a map. “That’s te warehouse that burned down two days ago, know anything about it?”
He turned his hazel eyes toward her and Alana felt her mouth go dry. Everyone in the neighborhood were talking about that fire, it was only three blocks away.
“Only what everyone else is saying,” she said slowly, to hide the trembling. ‘Everyone’ said that it was set, but no one seemed to know by whom. Alana suppressed the thought that followed, it was only a dream, after all. She sensed the nobleman lean back in his chair and regard her curiously.
“Fire, like water, cleanses,” the nobleman said. His voice jolted her straight to her core, low and deep and dark. “By the time our investigators arrived all magical traces had been burned away.”
She froze. They weren’t asking her if…
“We were wondering if you…felt anything last night.”
So, they must have sensed her power, too. Funny they were asking her instead of the dozen or so mages who worked with the Harbor Master to inspect the ships that came in. Or maybe they had, and found that those men lived elsewhere and weren’t in the area when the fire started. Or maybe they were going from business to business, looking for witnesses. Or… She mentally shook herself, useless to speculate, really.
“I wasn’t ever formally trained…”
“I’m Kaiden,” the guardsmen interrupted, “and this is Lord Lucien, my commander. We are in the Mage-Guard, as you probably guessed.”
She smiled slightly, and went to the door to flip the sign from ‘Open’ to ‘Closed’. These men weren’t likely to leave until she told them what information she had, and she didn’t want any of her regular customers walking in and learning her secrets. Mages were accepted as mages, but many people had superstitions about them serving food. Her shop was small, and there were times when she had to skimp on her own needs and comforts in order to pay the rent, if enough people found out that she was a mage and took their business elsewhere…
“I’m Alana,” she said as she took a seat. “I don’t know if I felt anything, I was asleep.”
“Perhaps you had a dream?” Lord Lucien said.
Alana flinched, Too close.
“Yes,” she said, then deliberately took a tea cup from beside the hearth and poured herself a cup from the ever ready pot of puer-er tea she kept warming there, and took a sip.
Kaiden smiled at her, she got the impression that he did that a lot. The Lord, Lucien, watched her with his dark, dark eyes.
“We’re investigating that fire and we turned up a few unusual things, but…” He shrugged expressively.
“Were you ever tested for mage powers?” the lord asked, and she flinched again, her heart pounding painfully.
“No,” she said, staring at the floor. They could probably see the lie in her aura, but even Mage-Guards didn’t have a right to question her about her education, at least, not without good cause.
“Ah,” Lord Lucian said, but she could feel his questions pressing down on her along with his power. Why was an untrained mage running a tea shop by the docks, anyways? Well, that wasn’t his business. For a moment she feared that one or the other would launch into a lecture about how she should go to the University and study magic. Get a ‘good’ job. All she would have to do is sign her life away for ten years and join the Mage-Guard.
Alana would rather die.
“It would be good to know if you dreamt anything when building burned.”
She shook her head, staring down into her cup of tea. Puer-er tea had the advantage of being quite mellow in flavor as well as being hardy enough to stew for hours. She swirled the dark liquor and inhaled the steam before turning back to the two men at the table. “Not jus that night,” she said, “I had been having the same nightmare three nights in a row prior to the fire.”
“You would be doing us a great favor if you tell us about them,” said Lord Lucien, and she shivered at the sound of his voice.
Alana swallowed, her throat going dy despite the tea. Those dreams weren’t the worst thing to happen to her, but only because they were dreams.
Better get this over with. They were the Mage-Guard and if they wanted to they could haul her in and force her to answer. Besides, it would be good to tell someone.
“I was someone else, in my dreams,” she said, “a man. And I don’t remember why, but I had locked myself in somewhere small and dark, so no one could find me.” That was so strange, she hated small places. “I, or rather, he was paralyzed. He couldn’t even scream.” Her dreamself had certainly wanted to. “He-it felt like he was being chewed apart from the inside.”
“The fire,” Lord Lucien prompted after a moment of silence.
She shook her head. “I had the dream a few hours before. It felt like he was dying.”
“Like something was bursting out of his stomach,” said Kaiden, flatly.
Alana started. “Yes! How did you--?”
The men shared a look. “Go on, how long was this before the fire?”
“I woke up of course. It--I thought it was just a dream so I went back to sleep a little later, and I guess sometime later the warehouse burned down.
“A newborn,” Kaiden said. “The host hid in the warehouse, probably in a crate, and the newborn burned the place down to hide the evidence after it emerged. Three days is just about right for gestation.”
That… didn’t sound good.
After a moment Lord Lucien drew out an insignia and handed it to her. “Keep that on you,” Kaiden said. “and stay inside after dark. And if you sense anything else you want to tell us, let us know. We could always use more eyes around here.” The last said with a half-chuckle as if at a private joke.
“What was it?” she asked quickly, before they could leave. “What were my dreams about?”
The men looked at each other again and this time she could feel the current of communication flowing between them. Telepathy, she shivered, but she shouldn’t have been surprised. Rumor had it that if you weren’t a telepath when you joined the Mage-Guard they made you into one.
“We’ve been investigating localities of Shadowstain, and your dream confirmed there’s a demonling in the area.”
A demonling…Alana shuddered. It would certainly explain a few things that had been happening lately…
“Anyways, you’ve been very helpful, Miss,” Kaiden said. “Please feel free to inform us if you have any more of those dreams. And it might be a good idea to stay inside after dark.”
“I live able the tea shop,” she said.
He smiled, “So you should be fine.”
ETA: And the cat is looking for something in that methodical 'where did I leave my keys' sort of way. I gave her a cat toy that she took to the other room, but that's apparently not what she was looking for. Cats are dorks.
Alana looked up when the bell on the door rang, a pleasant smile and words of greeting freezing on her lips. The first man though the door wasn’t anything out of the usual for dockside district, he was a guardsmen, possibly from one of the city regiments or even the Mage-Guard. Wait, definitely Mage-Guard, the little glow of magic about him was absolutely indicative. His short black hair and hazel eyes spoke of noble blood, perhaps from the wrong side of the sheets. If so, he didn’t seem embittered by it, his open countenance was welcoming and he met her delayed greeting with one of his own. It was the second man who froze the breath in her throat.
Noble, yes, there was no doubt about it, and not just one of the half-bloods or lesser lords that occasionally came by. No, by the cut of his clothing (plain, but well tailored and was that silk?) the gold enameled clip holding back his black hair, enameled with the colors of one of a scion of the Four Houses, and, above all, by the power that swept into her tea shop with him. Magic. And not the level of the average corner store magus or even the Mage-Guard. No, this was the power of those who could trace their linage to the Heavens.
In her little dockside tea shop.
She forced herself to smile at him, and showed them to her most ‘private’ table, the one in the corner by the hearth, and took their orders. This time of the day the tea shoppe was usually empty, mid-afternoon, after lunch but before the dinner crowd. She took their orders and all but fled to the back, the noble’s magic all but choking her with its intensity. Most people would have barely noticed it, but she was more sensitive then usual and the oppressive atmosphere felt like it was crushing her.
With a shuddering breath she forced herself to pour the hot (not boiling, hot) water into the tea post, but the ‘best’ she had was which probably didn’t at all compare to the pots the noble lord used at home, but were quite serviceable. At least her tea was good.
Papers littered the table when she came out to serve them, papers and notebooks and what looked maps of the City’s leylines.
“Here, here, and here,” the guardsman said, pointing to spot on the map. “Looks like they correspond with the storm overflow.”
“But not the sewers or drinking water lines.” The noble sat back and thanked her absently as she slid the tray into place and poured for the both of them. His power swirled slowly, almost thoughtfully and she hastily pulled her own in, it wasn’t a crime to be an unregistered mage, but it wasn’t encouraged, either. Not that she was trained. Alana curtsied--it had been years since she curtsied, but she still remembered how, and turned to go back to the back room. The dinner crowd would be coming in just a few hours and she needed to be ready for them.
“Hey, Miss?” the guardsman’s voice stopped her.
“Yes?” she said, returning to the table. The noble was frowning at a chart, a cup of her best tea cradled in his hand. The first man jabbed at a map. “That’s te warehouse that burned down two days ago, know anything about it?”
He turned his hazel eyes toward her and Alana felt her mouth go dry. Everyone in the neighborhood were talking about that fire, it was only three blocks away.
“Only what everyone else is saying,” she said slowly, to hide the trembling. ‘Everyone’ said that it was set, but no one seemed to know by whom. Alana suppressed the thought that followed, it was only a dream, after all. She sensed the nobleman lean back in his chair and regard her curiously.
“Fire, like water, cleanses,” the nobleman said. His voice jolted her straight to her core, low and deep and dark. “By the time our investigators arrived all magical traces had been burned away.”
She froze. They weren’t asking her if…
“We were wondering if you…felt anything last night.”
So, they must have sensed her power, too. Funny they were asking her instead of the dozen or so mages who worked with the Harbor Master to inspect the ships that came in. Or maybe they had, and found that those men lived elsewhere and weren’t in the area when the fire started. Or maybe they were going from business to business, looking for witnesses. Or… She mentally shook herself, useless to speculate, really.
“I wasn’t ever formally trained…”
“I’m Kaiden,” the guardsmen interrupted, “and this is Lord Lucien, my commander. We are in the Mage-Guard, as you probably guessed.”
She smiled slightly, and went to the door to flip the sign from ‘Open’ to ‘Closed’. These men weren’t likely to leave until she told them what information she had, and she didn’t want any of her regular customers walking in and learning her secrets. Mages were accepted as mages, but many people had superstitions about them serving food. Her shop was small, and there were times when she had to skimp on her own needs and comforts in order to pay the rent, if enough people found out that she was a mage and took their business elsewhere…
“I’m Alana,” she said as she took a seat. “I don’t know if I felt anything, I was asleep.”
“Perhaps you had a dream?” Lord Lucien said.
Alana flinched, Too close.
“Yes,” she said, then deliberately took a tea cup from beside the hearth and poured herself a cup from the ever ready pot of puer-er tea she kept warming there, and took a sip.
Kaiden smiled at her, she got the impression that he did that a lot. The Lord, Lucien, watched her with his dark, dark eyes.
“We’re investigating that fire and we turned up a few unusual things, but…” He shrugged expressively.
“Were you ever tested for mage powers?” the lord asked, and she flinched again, her heart pounding painfully.
“No,” she said, staring at the floor. They could probably see the lie in her aura, but even Mage-Guards didn’t have a right to question her about her education, at least, not without good cause.
“Ah,” Lord Lucian said, but she could feel his questions pressing down on her along with his power. Why was an untrained mage running a tea shop by the docks, anyways? Well, that wasn’t his business. For a moment she feared that one or the other would launch into a lecture about how she should go to the University and study magic. Get a ‘good’ job. All she would have to do is sign her life away for ten years and join the Mage-Guard.
Alana would rather die.
“It would be good to know if you dreamt anything when building burned.”
She shook her head, staring down into her cup of tea. Puer-er tea had the advantage of being quite mellow in flavor as well as being hardy enough to stew for hours. She swirled the dark liquor and inhaled the steam before turning back to the two men at the table. “Not jus that night,” she said, “I had been having the same nightmare three nights in a row prior to the fire.”
“You would be doing us a great favor if you tell us about them,” said Lord Lucien, and she shivered at the sound of his voice.
Alana swallowed, her throat going dy despite the tea. Those dreams weren’t the worst thing to happen to her, but only because they were dreams.
Better get this over with. They were the Mage-Guard and if they wanted to they could haul her in and force her to answer. Besides, it would be good to tell someone.
“I was someone else, in my dreams,” she said, “a man. And I don’t remember why, but I had locked myself in somewhere small and dark, so no one could find me.” That was so strange, she hated small places. “I, or rather, he was paralyzed. He couldn’t even scream.” Her dreamself had certainly wanted to. “He-it felt like he was being chewed apart from the inside.”
“The fire,” Lord Lucien prompted after a moment of silence.
She shook her head. “I had the dream a few hours before. It felt like he was dying.”
“Like something was bursting out of his stomach,” said Kaiden, flatly.
Alana started. “Yes! How did you--?”
The men shared a look. “Go on, how long was this before the fire?”
“I woke up of course. It--I thought it was just a dream so I went back to sleep a little later, and I guess sometime later the warehouse burned down.
“A newborn,” Kaiden said. “The host hid in the warehouse, probably in a crate, and the newborn burned the place down to hide the evidence after it emerged. Three days is just about right for gestation.”
That… didn’t sound good.
After a moment Lord Lucien drew out an insignia and handed it to her. “Keep that on you,” Kaiden said. “and stay inside after dark. And if you sense anything else you want to tell us, let us know. We could always use more eyes around here.” The last said with a half-chuckle as if at a private joke.
“What was it?” she asked quickly, before they could leave. “What were my dreams about?”
The men looked at each other again and this time she could feel the current of communication flowing between them. Telepathy, she shivered, but she shouldn’t have been surprised. Rumor had it that if you weren’t a telepath when you joined the Mage-Guard they made you into one.
“We’ve been investigating localities of Shadowstain, and your dream confirmed there’s a demonling in the area.”
A demonling…Alana shuddered. It would certainly explain a few things that had been happening lately…
“Anyways, you’ve been very helpful, Miss,” Kaiden said. “Please feel free to inform us if you have any more of those dreams. And it might be a good idea to stay inside after dark.”
“I live able the tea shop,” she said.
He smiled, “So you should be fine.”
ETA: And the cat is looking for something in that methodical 'where did I leave my keys' sort of way. I gave her a cat toy that she took to the other room, but that's apparently not what she was looking for. Cats are dorks.
Interesting story. Hope you continue it. What does "I live able the..."mean?
Date: 2008-11-12 02:57 am (UTC)Re: Interesting story. Hope you continue it. What does "I live able the..."mean?
From:Story
Date: 2008-11-12 08:51 pm (UTC)...
Your damned livejournal isn't accepting my open ID. I guess it still has a lot of bugs to work out.
-Martha
Re: Story
From: