Chapter 6 #2
A missing student was not a priority in a storm. The castle was old, and a lot of it leaked, swayed, and creaked in the storms, despite all the enchantments that were placed upon it. It called for the attention of most faculty members as well as non-faculty staff.
The clouds grumbled afar, and Lesya thought about which way was best to escape this castle.
She had money. Money was almost never a problem, especially if you were a dab hand at alchemy and could convert lower metals into gold.
Not all could do it, and if you could do it especially well, like Lesya could, then alchemical gold fetched a high price.
There was a shop in Crook Haven where Lesya had been depositing gold, copper, and silver for well over a year.
The profits from that, in turn, were being deposited in her bank account.
She would lose access to the vast reserves of experimental metals in the labs, the very metals that allowed her to alchemize gold.
Oh, no, this was not about money at all. It was about disappearing so well that no one, not the headmaster, not the Grath Nomad, not even the man she loved, Cassian, could find her.
Wait for all of this to blow over on some distant island where she could heal people, do her alchemy, collect plants, live a hermetic life.
In short, be the witch she was meant to be.
The woman in the forest, they’d call her.
Beware of the woman in the forest. She has a wicked grin and there’s always a necklace of bone around her neck, bones too big to be an animal’s.
She grinned at the thought. That was perfect.
She could have a whole cottage to herself in the woods, a cottage on a small hilltop, surrounded by alpines, overlooking the beach.
Were there places like that in the world that would have that eclectic variety of beach, hills, alpines, and sea?
She was sure there were. The entirety of Scandinavia was like that, she’d heard.
Now, how to escape? There was the usual route, the oldest and most boring way of traveling upon a broom. That was out of the question for now. The storm would blow her broom somewhere across the sea and she might end up in India.
Brooms were never an ideal vehicle for transportation. A train would take her too long, and would alert others to her absence very quickly. She’d barely make it out of the station when they’d catch up with her, and she was certain they would catch up with her.
She was in Eldric’s notice, and that man saw everything.
There was another way of escaping.
Of course there was.
* * *
In Cassian Veilmonte’s office, there was a fireplace. It was one of the few fireplaces that allowed instantaneous transportation from one part of the world to another. These enchanted fireplaces were how she assumed Cassian traveled under Eldric’s orders as fast and frequently as he did.
She stood there in his office, staring at the fireplace, her luggage in hand. She had cast a spell upon it to make it light and indiscreet. It looked like she was just carrying her handbag, but that handbag held everything she owned.
She had left a letter on Cassian’s desk, explaining to him the dire circumstances under which she was leaving.
Lesya took a deep breath and stepped into the fireplace.
Nothing happened.
“I had that locked when I learned what happened to you last night,” a voice came from behind. She dreaded turning around, and yet she had to. She was backed up into a corner.
Cassian stood there, holding her letter, looking at her with a worried frown.
“Please tell me you’re not about to do this,” he said, nodding at her bag, then nodding at her fight-or-flight posture.
“What else is there to do? The headmaster has it out for me. He made me sign a contract to be part of the Covenant. He threatened me…” she said, stopping herself at the right moment. The dreams. Cassian didn’t know about the dreams.
“You’re part of the Covenant. Don’t you understand what that means? It means I can tell you everything now. It means I can protect you, should anything happen,” Cassian said, striding across the room until he was standing right next to her. “I love you.”
“I love you too,” she said, a single tear trailing down her face as she placed her hand on his chest. His gently beating heart calmed her. If he was not worried, then why was she spiraling?
“Then what’s gotten into you? You don’t behave this way, like, ever.”
He was right, as usual, and this made her afraid of the implication. Could she share with him her deepest secrets?
* * *
“Let me get this straight,” Cassian began, rubbing his palm over his entire face. He’d listened to everything that she’d told him with deliberate patience, holding her hand the entire time. “Self-medication?!”
“That’s your big fucking takeaway from everything I told you?
!” Lesya’s whole body was trembling. It had been the biggest leap of faith she had taken in recent years, telling Cassian seeing Aeterna in her dreams. It had not been easy, and yet, at that moment, when she had nowhere to turn, she trusted him.
And here he was now, with the most exaggerated and unexpected reaction to her story.
“Making a draught on your own, experimenting with different ingredients, that is potentially the most dangerous thing you could do!” Cassian snapped, standing up and pacing around the room, looking at the many vials his shelves held. “What were the ingredients?! Quick, tell me now.”
“Pinch of yarrow, five drops of phoenix ether, two ground-up dover cloves, and a sprinkle of saffron,” she said, her heart beating fast.
“Where did you get your hands on phoenix ether?” he asked, and his tone made it clear that he was asking this as a teacher, not as her lover. “Tell me.”
“Your office,” she said, tightening her lips.
“Are you kidding me?!” He glared at her from the farthest shelf, taking out his phoenix ether vial. It was brimming, corked tightly shut, the red wax on it still solid and unbroken.
“No, you idiot, of course I didn’t take it from your reserves. I made it on my own,” she said, chuckling, finding this whole situation doomed and yet funny.
“Do you have any of the phoenix ether you made?” he asked, walking over to her.