Nasty Little Witchling

Sam Manafold

Valeria had her nose pressed against the window of the carriage, moving her head about to get the best view of whatever attracted her attention. Her ponytail moving about reminded me of an excited puppy. I didn’t think I would be able to find anyone else that looked genuinely interested in the happenings of the city outside.

From the tilt of the carriage I already knew what street we were on, the colour of the buildings we were passing and the clothes the people outside were probably wearing.

Linh was in her usual position, legs crossed, clutching a pencil with a drawing pad on her lap. I didn’t know how she managed to draw anything with the bumps and sway.

Valeria leaned forward to watch something as long as she possibly could before we went past. “What was it?”

“Hmm? I thought I recognised someone.”

The twitch of her nose and pursed lips told me it wasn’t a friendly acquaintance.

Linh turned around her pad to show us the sketch she’d been working on. “What do you think?”

It was the rough beginnings of Valeria gazing outside the window. Linh had already managed to capture the wonder in her expression quite well.

“That’s really good,” Valeria said. She seemed like an earnest person but sometimes it sounded like she forgot to put emotion into her words.

“Thanks.”

Valeria ended up leaning into me as the carriage took a turn down Church Street. My chest tightened at the contact, and more when she turned her bright amber eyes to me. I read the apology on her lips more than I heard the words.

“No worries, it takes some getting used to.”

I pulled down my dress shirt and made sure it was tucked in properly. The carriage would be slowing down soon and I just wanted to make sure I was dressed properly.

We did slow to a stop a bit after I thought we would. I leaned over Valeria to open the door and moved out of the way for the two of them to step down.

I walked off the last step to see both looking up at the tall towers of the old church building. Built in a time when the church headquarters hoarded more wealth than the mint made in a decade. The number of mages and materials requisitioned for their projects across the country could have built every person, even the children, their own three bedroom house.

It was too bad the rest of it was now stuck with the ghoulish population of the capital, the goal of most looters and the more savvy rems.

Drasda hadn’t been more than an outpost town when the two here were constructed, they just needed somewhere to funnel their wealth. Dad liked to rant and rave about where the country could be now if they had put it to better use.

“If you stare any longer your mum is going to think you changed your mind about architecture,” I said to Linh, who gave me one of her perfected eye rolls in return.

We bonded a lot over our parents' polite, but pushy, suggestions on what courses to take at Equitier. We hadn't yet submitted an application, but being the son and daughter of a chief had its privileges. Not as many as people liked to complain about, but a decent few.

We walked up the tall stone steps, under the watchful gaze of chiselled depictions of Mother Zalarya’s first children. That religion was akin to unreliable history nowadays, but some people liked to preach it still. Usually, it was the mediocre mages who needed thousand year old texts to tell them they were better than others.

“We’ll go get you some clothes to exercise in after this,” I said to the girl struggling to lift her legs up the last step. I thought adding that it was okay since her legs were just shorter than ours, was a bad idea.

“Argh.” Was all I got in return.

Only the person sized door, built into the towering blocks of wood masquerading as doors, was open. There were not enough librarians to justify opening them up every day, it was also bad for the rows upon rows of delicate books. Enchantments helped, but prevention was better.

We walked past two guards who looked eager to find a reason to cross their halberds together and bar entry.

We made it through unscathed and found ourselves inside a hollow oval section that allowed us to see the four floors above us, each with double the number of bookshelves as the first. Half of our floor was taken up by the printing and storage area for the prints they handed out instead of the real things.

Stained glass windows in the dome above us allowed red and yellow light to filter in. Cracked paintings in their original form sat faded on other sections of the dome, more recent cover-ups standing out with their vibrance.

A line was forming at the check-out desks with more people streaming in every moment we waited for Valeria to stop gawking.

I helped out by lightly pushing her forward.

“What kind of books did you want?”

“I… um…want something on fire, like what it is. I want something on animals and plants, and insects as well. Maybe something on mana…And murder mysteries.”

She finished counting off the number of things she wanted on her fingers. It looked like another list was on the tip of her tongue, so I started walking.

“Well, I think the bottom floor will get you the first one.” I grabbed a clipboard with a pencil tied to the top.

I watched Linh gently nudge Valeria out of the way of a few passersby, too distracted by the scale of the building around us.

The ‘natural world’ section was one of the largest and took up most of the first two floors. We walked to the section I guessed would be a good place to start looking. I had to grab Valeria’s wrist as she leaned over the long table, towards the books. It stretched the whole aisle, meant to block people from doing just that.

She stared at my hand and tried to get away, a look of panic in her eyes.

I quickly let go. “Sorry, we just can’t touch the books. Sorry for grabbing you.”

“It’s fine, I should have asked.”

Cards showing the name, author, date of writing and a brief description sat upright in wooden boxes. I flicked through them and found the one titled, ‘The Four States of Matter.’ I handed it to Valeria for her to look through.

“There's four now?”

“Yeah…has been for some time, well we’ve at least called it that for some time.”

“How do I get the book if I can’t touch it?”

I pointed to the decorated spine of a gold inlaid leather tome, with the name of the author larger than the title. “It’s too expensive and risky to lend out originals. We take the number on the card to the desk, they’ll give us a copy of it, a much less expensive copy.”

We had a library at home with a lot of originals or duplicates that at least looked the part. They were on more sophisticated topics, there for decoration and conversation, rather than leisure.

If we had arrived right as the library opened, or if it was closing and the librarians wanted you out, we could have used the book the size of a carriage that stored every one of the numbers.

Linh was wondering behind us as I passed more cards touting different types of wildlife and fauna to Valeria. I stopped after she said yes to the eighth book, not having said no to a single one, the latest being about the Red Forest.

Her mana reserves were so low that I hadn’t noticed she was a mage the first time we’d met. I felt bad that she might be getting her hopes up by studying mana theory. Mana tended to grow unpredictably and was only partly influenced by practice.

I silently cheered her on anyway.

We made our way to the top floor, the newest and most comfortable section of the library. Catering to us more than the academics and workers shuffling around below. The shelves were accessible and the contents of them didn’t look priceless or likely to disintegrate in our hands.

The books here were thinner and paper-backed, rather than leathery and ageing. Multiple sets of the same title lined the shelves with more stacked on the tables, rather than cards.

Murder mystery wasn’t what I enjoyed reading, but I knew what the most popular ones were. I picked out a few to hand to Valeria who again, wasn’t saying no to any. I thought about handing her books until they spilled out of her arms but stopped after the top one threatened to topple off the stack.

I felt bad and traded her the books for the clipboard.

“The copies of the downstairs ones will be ten roe each, and a deposit you’ll get back if you return them, or thirty roe to keep. These ones each have their own price, about the same as keeping the copies.”

I stopped in my tracks and turned to face her. It was something I should have asked earlier, I hadn’t because it wasn’t usually something you needed to make sure of. “You did bring coins with you, right?”

“Yes.” She pulled out a whole roll of silver and I pushed her hand back towards her pocket. I could see why Madam Riker wanted someone to go with her. While no one was brazen enough to steal in the library, it was common sense not to go around flashing roe about.

“Just making sure.”

Linh had wandered off somewhere and came back with her own set of books. She tucked them under her arm but I could still see the handsome elf on the cover. The only time I’d ever seen the confident girl blush was when Keral got ahold of one and started reading the synopsis out loud.

My reading list was long enough without adding more to it, so I only left with four, maybe five additions.

I was waiting for traders to come in from the east and bring writings about the skirmishes going on there. No one had fought any real wars in the last two generations and the theories of how warfare would change with the advancement of spellcraft were wildly different.

Not that I wanted there to be any wars.

I had to peer around the books in my arms to watch my steps down to the first floor. I didn’t think I could have ever shown my face again if I tumbled down the spiral staircase.

Linh got in her own line to the desks while Valeria stuck with me in another. I asked her why she liked murder mystery in particular and got a shrug in return. The other books were easier to understand since she seemed to like sleeping amongst the trees with birds willingly sitting on her finger, singing tunes they wouldn’t normally.

“Do you want to go to a cafe afterwards? We can take these ones with us, but those we wrote down will have to be picked up in a few hours, maybe even tomorrow.”

I don’t know why she looked to be thinking it over, she hadn’t said no to a single thing today. “Sure. Is Clem’s boutique around here?”

“I’d have to check with Linh, it’s not somewhere I usually go. We can maybe find stuff for exercising, but it’ll be pricey there.”

She groaned, but it was the one opportunity I’d found to reliably spend more time with her, so I was going to push for it. Disturbing her naps in the hammock seemed like a good way to annoy her, and that was only if I had an excuse to be in the palace.

We got to the front of the queue and Valeria handed over her board.

“Good afternoon, separate or together?”

“Separate, please. These are for me, those and the copies are for her, to keep.”

“Right, that’ll be…150 roe for you and 470 for her. The copies should be ready for collection this evening or it might be better to come back tomorrow morning.”

I started placing coins on the counter. Valeria was unfolding a thick piece of paper which I could see the shadow of the ducal seal on.

“You don’t need this?” she asked, holding it out to the librarian.

“Oh, is that for both of you?”

“Just her.” I wasn’t interested in committing a crime that severe, just for 150 roe.

“The fee is waived then and we’ll have the copies for you in a few hours. Please thank the duke for his continued support.”

Linh was waiting for us as I balanced the books we got in my arms. Valeria was folding her letter back into her pocket. “You didn’t tell me you had a referral from the duke with you.”

“I thought it was normal? How come I didn’t have to pay?”

I desperately wanted to dig into how she was getting special treatment from the palace. Talent alone couldn’t get you a guest room, signed referrals with the ducal seal and hammocks hung for you in the palace gardens.

“The library used to be in a smaller building, the last duke gave them the vacated church and made it a law that any new books had to be taken to them. So, they appreciate what the Riker family has done.”

“Where to now?” Linh asked.

…

Valeria was eyeing my colourful drink with pieces of lychee sitting on the ice.

We’d made our way down the street to a cafe in between Clem’s and the library. She and Linh had ordered tea, while I got one of the fruity drinks and a pastry since I was hungry from the morning training.

“Would you like to try some?”

She picked up the glass I slid over, took a small sip, licked her lips and took another. “It’s good? I don’t think I’ve had fruit like that before.”

I picked up a fork to spear one of the lychee pieces for her. It was one of my favourite fruits, which she seemed to enjoy as well.

The nearby school had just ended for the day and the remaining seats were quickly filling up with boys and girls on the cusp of going to a higher academy like Equitier.

Linh was already reading one of her books, the rest of which were left with the carriage. She was good at ignoring all the admiring looks she got. Valeria on the other hand had a habit of knowing exactly who was looking, and making them turn away when she stared back.

Linh and I, along with the others we grew up with, had in house tutors that had covered all the content we needed a year ago. We did still go to some classes and knew a lot of the people sitting down, I raised a hand to the few that met my gaze.

One of them, Remee, came over to take the free seat. “How’s it going, Sam? Looking good, Linh. Hey, new girl.”

“Not bad, how about yourself?” I said and motioned to the new girl. “This is Valeria.”

“Hello,” Valeria said and stuck out her first.

Remee returned the gesture. “Cool accent.”

He turned back to me. “So, Fergie is having a get-together tomorrow night at the usual place, you’re obviously invited, even new girl. We’re still looking for some sponsorships. If you’re keen?”

“Nope,” Linh said, not entertaining the idea of buying the alcohol.

“Can’t man. Dad has been combing through my finances…don’t you dare ask her.”

“I wasn't,” he lied. “So touchy today. Just bring anything you can swing from your father’s stash, that Oclaran shit had even Garal passed out after thee swigs. Fifth bell if you’re coming.”

We clasped hands as he stood up and he returned to the group he came in with.

“The watch broke up his last get-together, are you still thinking of going?” Linh said.

“I’ll see how I feel at the time, wanna head towards Clem’s? It looks like some people want our table,” I asked. The only part of my drink left was the ice that had melted since the last time I took a sip.

The street was flooded with people as we walked towards the main shopping area of the district. Carriages avoided the area since people would refuse to move out the way and squash themselves into the narrow walkways for them.

The storefront next to our destination was being avoided, due to the watch officers standing outside. The glass was shattered inwards with the inside looking like a storm occurred.

Valeria walked up to one of the officers. “Hello, Gram.”

“Oh, hello Val…?”

“...eria?”

“Right, Valeria, sorry. I’m dealing with someone else’s stolen property at the moment, so I hope you’re not here to report anything.”

“Nope, but I did see the boy that took my stuff somewhere that way earlier,” she said, pointing in the direction we came.

“Yeah, I’ll make a note of that. I hope you didn’t attack him again,” Gram said. “Mind if I get back to it before the manager yells at me again?”

I’d tried to make it clear an electrum coin wasn’t worth chasing thieves for, and it looked like that had paid off. Though I wished she’d pointed the boy out.

“I feel like I’m seeing stuff like that more often,” Linh said.

“Yeah, Mother has a new story from her friends, and their friends, about a break-in they personally witnessed. They do happen, but I doubt they see them.”

Crimes like that didn’t usually happen in the Castle District, the watch headquarters and constant knight patrols made it almost impossible for any organised crime to exist, for long.

Bouquets of purple and blue flowers sat on either side of the entrance to Clem’s. Calligraphy was etched onto the reinforced glass, announcing the name and opening times. Mana ran through it and the door to create a reinforced enchantment that was currently lowered.

I walked in behind the two girls, feeling a bit awkward at being one of two males in the store. The other looked a lot like a boyfriend.

An attendant noticed us and excused herself from her conversation. Her heels clicked against the floor as she approached. “Ah, Linh, lovely to see you again. What can we do for you today?”

“Good afternoon, Madam Ira. Nothing for me today, shopping for a friend,” Linh said and spread her arms to Valeria.

“Of course, what can I help you with?”

Valeria looked lost and threw a pleading look my way, I threw it back at Linh. I had no idea what to get, let alone what to call it.

Linh sighed. “Let’s get her measurements first, I’ll pick out a few items.”

Valeria said she already had those and started pointing to herself, listing off a bunch of numbers, which Madam Ira wrote down. I didn’t know what any of the numbers meant, but it felt wrong to hear them.

Linh picked out some shorts, a long-sleeved top and underwear I’d seen some of the female knights wear while running. She gave them to Madam Ira who changed out the top for a size she thought was better, and placed them by a counter.

I started to walk around the racks of clothing, glancing at a few items I thought would look good on her. I pulled out a yellow sweater and held it up for Linh to see, she turned her nose up at it.

The dress I tried to show her next got me insulted for not knowing the upcoming season.

A dark blue wool coat in the shape of a dress, with pairs of buttons down the front, finally got me a head tilt, a contemplative look, and then a nod. I placed it next to the growing pile of clothes.

By the end of it I didn’t manage to find anything else to Linh’s liking, even the socks she sent me to get were the wrong kind. The pile of clothes had grown considerably and I was worried Valeria didn’t have enough silver for it all.

“That will total to one thousand three hundred and ten, including the discount for your association with one of our preferred customers,” Madam Ira said, smiling widely to Linh.

I looked to Linh with wide eyes, she had the decency to look embarrassed at the figure she’d racked up.

Valeria looked at me, but her roll of silver wasn’t going to be enough. I whispered to her, asking if she wanted the clothes and had enough roe at the palace.

She nodded enthusiastically.

“Can we pay for some now and get the rest delivered with the invoice, payment upon delivery?” I asked.

“Certainly, what will the address be?”

“1 Drasda.”

Madam Ira looked to Linh, who nodded. Her smile started to include a lot of teeth. “I’ll have this all wrapped up and delivered tomorrow morning, what name should I use?”