Hiems, who was once called Mendax, did not follow Aureum. He did not look for her.
He may have wanted to.
But he did not! He knew where the line had been drawn. She had left. There had been nothing there to begin with, and she had left.
That was all.
His decision to leave her alone did not mean that he didn't come across her. Everywhere he went, his fellow little servants were talking about her.
"She was very odd," one of the kitchen women said. "She called her son 'Gemmo.' Who names a boy a bud?"
"Maybe it was a nickname?"
This was a woman in yellow, who worked inside the house. She was too high and too low for Hiems to know her by name.
He was just here to get his meal, but he wandered into this mess.
Her son? That's impossible!
He had heard nothing of her having a son, and there hadn't been long enough for her to have one…
Had there been?
Definitely not.
Hiems shook his head.
It's not my concern.
"No, she was adamant. 'It's a good name,'" the woman said. "Said nothing about a nickname."
"Strange. Then again, it makes sense that a woman like Spesavia would have a student like her. I found the oddest thing in that woman's room when I went to clean it…"
Mendax had already walked out of the room by then. He had gotten used to serving himself, and nobody questioned it as long as he grabbed the portions left for the servants and stayed away from the cooking.
He turned over the scant things he had learned and shoved them into a dark corner of his mind.
It didn't matter. Nothing good would come of thinking of it. He didn't follow her, but he couldn't escape hearing of her.
The next day the boys at the stable were talking about it.
"She's pretty, for being a crazy sorcerer."
"She's not all that. Definitely walks around like she's too big for her britches."
The prized opinions of teenagers' idealized standards of beauty didn't interest Hiems. He continued his work alongside them in silence.
"I don't think ladies have leggings."
"She isn't a lady. She might not even be a sorceress. From what I hear, she has the same amount of layers as either of us. 'Cept for maybe Hiems over there."
The two boys looked at him, noticing his existence for a second. Hiems didn't look back.
"Still, she's an apprentice to that old ba—
"Shhhh! Don't speak of Spesavia that way! … But yeh, you can't assume much of appearances with that."
"You were badmouthing her apprentice first! And she's still pretty, no matter what she is."
"She's too much trouble for either of us. She has a kid! And I've been hearing that that old crone has been feeding her all kinds of potions…"
Potions? That would be good.
It was a privilege for young sorcerers to be given things that enabled their growth. Though stable boys might not be aware of it. To them, the lordlings that rose so quickly to power might just be "talented" due to their blood.
Even Mendax had gotten his share of potions back when he was training. Though those things weren't worth much remembering. Their side effects troubled him more than their benefits aided him.
Potions made by Spesavia herself for her pupil should work much better than that trash, however.
It seemed all would work out for her.
…
Yes, Hiems was trying to ignore the unease he felt. Yet much like he couldn't escape hearing about her, he couldn't escape it.
When Aureum was talked about, it wasn't her strange son that couldn't possibly be her son, or her looks, or her hours spent training, or even her lack of layers that came up the most. It was how she came to the manor escorted by Mors and how all the guards said she couldn't leave.
Actually, the fact that Maledic was imprisoning Spesavia was the hottest topic on everyone's lips. They all wanted to know if Maledic had plans to return to the games of power. Most of them were naively excited about it. But Hiems was more interested in Aureum's side note to that story.
Despite his avoidance of the woman herself, Hiems allowed himself to think on her situation. The little puzzle pieces of gossip were arranged and rearranged in his mind.
A strange new child.
Maledic locked up someone who could have been an ally…
Continuing to grow her powers.
Seems fine, overall.
Yeah, he had no idea what was going on. He only knew that none of it made sense.
Maledic hadn't been a participant in power plays for decades at least, if not longer. Vitreum's situation may have woken him up to change that, but then his attention should be directed towards Lapis first.
And why would one of his first moves be to anger someone who could have been an ally? That didn't seem his way. Easily, his ways could have been different from what Hiems had heard, but Hiems' own treatment in Maledic's house had backed up the rumors.
It might have something to do with the kid… but that's just matching the two things that are oddly placed. There might be no connection at all.
There were obviously too many pieces to the puzzle missing for Hiems to make sense of it. A few things remained clear.
Aureum's fate here was undetermined. No, it was clear the situation put her in danger.
But what am I to do about it?
———————————————————
Spesavia had been frustrated this whole week.
Home imprisonment was the least of her concerns. The woman had studied in the conditions of a swamp, the mountaintops during a blizzard, and many more hostile environments besides.
There was a real crime committed by this one that none of the other environments had dared.
"What am I supposed to study without my notes?!"
The old woman spat once again as she crouched over the few apparatuses that Maledic had allowed her.
The small desk struggled to hold them all.
Even these were only returned because Spesavia demanded them for Aureum's improvement. To deny her the ability to protect and improve her only true student was further than Maledic wanted to go.
Though Aureum's newfound determination wasn't exactly a surprise, Spesavia welcomed it.
Gemmo burped and giggled as he crawled around on the floor.
"Yes, yes, I can make what Aureum needs easily enough," Spesavia murmured. Half to the baby, half to no one at all. "But how am I going to prepare for the future without my notes! Damn you, Maledic! There's nothing honorable about you—
She stopped mid-rant and looked up.
The old woman held up her hand towards Gemmo as she stepped outside the room. Waiting, she craned her head from one direction to the other.
After a bit, she snorted. Closing the door, she tromped her way down the hallway. Taking a few turns, she picked a short man up with her own wrinkled hand and pinned him to the wall.
She didn't say anything but peered into his face. The small closet of sheets had little in the way of breathing room.
"Ha!"
Then she laughed as she pulled her face back. Her hand still pinned his neck.
"You must be Mendax," she said. "You're not who Maledic would send… Mind explaining yourself?"
"I was simply cleaning."
"Right," Spesavia dropped him.
He fell onto the floor with a thud.
"So why are you here? Seeing how Aureum is? She's fine. As you likely know."
Hiems rubbed his scaly neck. The mottled lumps of scales appeared along the outer edges of his skin.
"I just… She's not even here. I wanted to know more about what was going on. Everybody wants to know."
"You know she's not here," Spesavia said, turning her head back to him.
Hiems stayed seated. He knew he was outclassed. He looked away.
"In Maledic's house," he said, "there's little you can do without causing a scene."
"How smart of you," Spesavia said. "You're right. You're not worth it. But I have a feeling it would be worth it for you to come sit with me. It shouldn't take long. Since you're so curious."
She left the closet. The old woman didn't look back, and while Hiems did pause, he followed behind. They returned to the room, where Gemmo was still on the floor sucking on the corner of Aureum's blanket. Spesavia pulled it out of his mouth. Then she peered inside the tiny open mouth.
"He has no need for it, but is it just the instinct of the physical form…?" Spesavia said.
Then she bundled the baby up and placed him on top of the bed.
Hiems looked at the baby as he stood off to the corner.
Whatever slumped shoulders he had learned in his months of being a servant had been shed in a second of Spesavia's introduction to him. He stood, not at attention, but coiled. Like a snake ready to strike.
The baby wasn't going to bite him.
The greater concern, Spesavia, also wasn't going to bite him. At least not now.
She was sorting through the pile on her desk, where vials filled with all sorts of viscosities and liquids rolled around in glass bottles.
"Nothing for the mana can be helped… but for the pain—
She continued murmuring to herself as she looked. But she paused in between all of that.
"Who taught you?" She said.
"I had many teachers—
"No, no. I don't care about the tools or tricks you know. Who helped you form your pearl?"
"My father," Hiems said, "Lord Nix."
The old woman snorted.
"That tracks."
She grabbed something and turned back towards him.
"I guess you're a man of many layers, as unimpressive as you look."
Mendax had been called many things. Unimpressive wasn't one of them. Before he could begin to make a response, before he even felt one necessary, Spesavia's tone shifted.
She placed a hand on his shoulder as she peered into his eyes.
"Aureum told me little of you," she said. "But she never fully mentioned your condition."
Hiems' eyebrows rose a little in surprise.
Of all the things he had expected from this sorceress, the mundane terminology of a doctor was not one of them. Especially when his condition was plainly on his face.
"I guess she didn't describe how bad the scales of my skin are? She never seemed to care much, but I'm certain to someone of your learning, it's an interesting case."
Most were repulsed, and some were curious. These were common responses. He looked back at Gemmo.
The baby was slowly struggling free of the blanket cocoon. One arm was waving wildly.
He was adorable. Despite a little bit of drool coming from his mouth.
Spesavia shook her head.
"Yes, any and all cases of physical aberration due to a manifestation of mana are very intriguing and unique, but I was talking about the incompatibility of the pearl to the body."
"Excuse me?" Hiems said, turning back at her.
Spesavia saw his eyes change. She cackled.
"Do you not understand the full implications of what your father did to you?"
She pushed the vial into his hands.
"Take this for the pain," she said. "And since you likely won't trust me, why don't you look into the severe cases of mana incompatibility yourself?"
She turned away, taking a moment to check on Gemmo. Now he had two arms reaching out. She picked him up and freed him entirely.
"Gaaaahhhh."
She rocked him a bit. Then frowned down at the boy.
The age at which this had to occur for this Mendax…
The man before her had not been a baby when it happened, but he had been but a child.
What moves people to do this to children? To his son? And how many people allowed it, and for what? Their own skin?
She chuckled.
How much was that skin worth after all this?
It was mostly an old woman's ruminations. For the man before her, the crimes that had been committed against him as a child weren't worth discussing.
They had happened, and the consequences were his life.
If the sky were red, would you care?
Would you work to change it?
"That's it?" Hiems said.
"Why are you still here?" She said. "I'm not going to tell you anything else you don't know. Go away."
Hiems knew when to not intrude upon a sorcerer. He left.
The old woman was again allowed to focus.
Deep into the evening, Aureum returned. She was covered in sweat.
"Aren't you going to clean yourself?" Spesavia said.
It was almost as if an outside force pushed the girl to go against the limits of her body these days. Maledic was happy enough to provide her with the capabilities to train.
It made him less the oppressor and more the good host he desired to be. As well as the minor fact that impeding the younger generations of sorcerers from learning was taboo.
Mana incompatibility…
Most children of Aeternitus had favoritism towards different kinds of mana. Whether this was caused more by the environmental factors or the bloodline was not clear. They both could affect it. Forming a pearl that opposed that favoritism would slow down the process. This could be detrimental to the child's growth as expected compared to their peers but wasn't intrinsically harmful to the body itself in most cases.
With the way the bloodlines formed, families marrying based on mana inclination, natural tendencies became more and more compounded. As an individual gained more benefit from one form of mana, it came to occur that they gained less benefit from the others.
Until it began to poison them.
That was one explanation for it.
Whatever this Mendax's favoritism was, it was not ice, the pearl that rested in his body.
The scales, aberrations caused by mana in the first place, were likely worsened by this decision.
But rare would be the doctors that could make that assumption. Such cases were scarce, and although the knowledge at the library of Fluentem's university grew, such specific knowledge needed to be known of before it could be sought out.
Still—
"What happened?" Aureum asked.
Spesavia shrugged.
"Much the same as every other day. People abusing others out of ignorance, or greed, or both. I haven't decided yet. Here, these will help you recover."
Aureum took the freshly made potion. She waited.
She knows that's not all. Getting more aware by the day, this girl.
"I met your little man today," Spesavia teased.