"Everything we call real is made of things that cannot be regarded as real."
- Niels Bohr
The next day passed in much the same way, Adelaide remained in her rooms, Lucien still had things to tidy up and Maximilian ended up helping him, grumbling sometimes that he was the victim in all of this. Mireille trained but kept it light. Alea and Alyssa had extracted one of the mana crystals from one of the automatons and found it cracked and dull but without a replacement, that they were probably not going to get, there were no more options for repair.
“You know the crystal is not really the power source.” Alea mused while the spider studied the cracked orb. Her body stood still while the spider moved and gestured. Alyssa was starting to get used to that.
“How is that?”
“Even in the best of cases such a crystal would last, what, a week? That's hardly appropriate for the cost and effort. But, the crystal can gather mana from the surroundings if you have the proper layout, look here,” she pointed at intricate symbols inside the opened automaton, “these here channel mana from outside into the crystal, and if you don’t use the power continuously it recharges. Nearly the same as a human sleeping.” She gave a tiny smile and the spider seemed more energetic.
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In the evening Alea, Mireille and Alyssa ate alone, the rest of the family were either indisposed or absent.
Vanessa appeared shortly after dusk giving them another set of instructions. Alyssa was lagging behind this time with Mireille having practiced a lot more, being bored was helpful for that.
The night passed uneventfully.
They woke in the early hours of the morning, even Mireille groggily opened her eyes as a commotion was heard from outside. Distant, agitated voices could be heard from downstairs, and from the tone, it was not a happy discussion even if details were unintelligible.
“Alyssa, can you make out what the hubbub is about?”
“No, I don’t understand a thing, but it is not something good of that I am sure. Asandria could you have a look, please?”
The ghost looked at her and something like a smile appeared on her face. ‘Mh. And what will I get for doing this? Helping when you are about to be killed or furthering your magic is one thing, but running errands quite another.’
“I don’t know? What would you like?”
‘Sing me a song, I will teach you, and if you are good enough with it, it can be considered my ‘payment’ Without waiting for a reply she drifted through the wall.
“What was that about, did she not want to look?”
“I think she was miffed about being bidden to do something menial. She was quite highly placed, I think, probably?” Alyssa looked uncertain.
Shortly after, while they were still washing up, Asandria rose through the floor. ‘There is a person named Mathilde von Nordmark in the entrance hall, she is a relative of Adelaide and as such distantly related to Maximilian and Alea, she seems to have ill intentions and forced the servants to let her in even though she had not notified anyone of her arrival and it was made clear to her that she was intruding.’
They quickly dressed after both had used the wand and then went outside. There beside the stair going down stood two maids listening intently. Mireille grinned. “We can ask them later what we missed!” The two maids were startled by the sudden voice and one of them even gave a small shriek. “Oh be quiet you two, we don’t bite.”
The two friends went down the stairs and saw Adelaide and Gerald beside two other servants and three maids standing before a middle-aged, elegant woman more handsome than pretty, with hair in a rich brown shade, probably dyed, she had applied makeup liberally and was clothed in fine and expensive-looking velvet, colored a deep maroon and stitched with golden thread. Her neck, arms, and fingers were adorned with jewelry. Her face looked like a pleasant mask but the eyes were cold.
Behind her stood a pleasant-looking blond man of perhaps thirty years of middling height in the clothing of a butler alongside two maids, black and blond-haired respectively, who had their heads respectfully lowered. The butler, or whoever he was, looked at the scene with a slight smile. He wore a monocle over his left eye.
Adelaide looked pale and ill, holding her head with one hand as if she had a headache coming on. “Mathilde, I deeply regret that I cannot be as hospitable as I would wish, but I am not in the best of ways. But what's done is done. Come in, and I can at least give you something to drink and a room if you need it. But it would please me greatly if you could be understanding of my servants; they have their orders from me and it is only natural that they obey mine before yours.”
“But Adelaide, dear, you misunderstand, as they mentioned that you were feeling ill I simply had to see you! We are family after all.” The last was said in a sweet tone that raised the hairs on Alyssa's neck.
“Had an aunt who did that number once or twice a year as long as there was still something left to steal. She sometimes succeeded, even though everyone knew that she would be attempting something like this.” Mireille quietly whispered, “So don’t dismiss her because she seems so open about her attitude.”
Gerald saw the two standing on the stairs first and leaned towards Adelaide motioning towards them. The latter nodded. The servant then ordered one of the maids who nodded and then climbed the stairs.
As she arrived she gave a small bow and said “I think it would be best if you took your meal with the young mistress in the dawn study, we will arrange everything. Madam von Gildburg is detained with family matters and thus the dining room is sadly occupied at the moment. I hope you can overlook this matter.” The maid looked apologetic. She was in her early twenties brown-haired and dark-eyed with a tan complexion, seemingly from the southern regions perhaps from Andria.
“Yes, we will be glad to do as you say. Hopefully, madam von Gildburg is also able to have a rest after all of this.” Alyssa answered. The maid looked grateful and then led them to a moderately sized room on the second floor overlooking the city in the direction of the rising sun.
The sun shone brightly through the half-opened windows, a breeze ruffled the curtains. There was a smaller table, fit perhaps for six with upholstered comfortable chairs of that number standing nearby. The walls were painted with the scenes of a summer festival, people dancing, some enjoying wine or other beverages. In the middle of all was a depiction of the god Thiostos, lying in a vineyard and enjoying his leisure. He was pressing grapes still on the wine in both hands, squeezing them to form two brooks of wine which were then used by the merry festivalgoers to fill their goblets. He was the god of the feast, the merry drinker, the last friend of the sorrowful but also the god of forgetfulness and the thief of reason. Hidden in between the vines were frolicking nymphs and satyrs.
“That sets the tone for a merry day,” Mireille remarked while grinning.
“I think that is the reason for us normally eating downstairs, it simply does not fit with what we have seen of Adelaide so far,” Alyssa replied while moving towards the window and lifting the curtain for a better look. They could see the neighboring houses of the well-to-do and the carefully tended gardens autumn coloring the trees.
“You would be right. Good morning to you both.” Alea entered, followed by three servants bearing trays of food. Even though it was sometimes hard to say, with the blindfold she was wearing, she seemed distracted and agitated at the moment, the legs of her spider rippled with suppressed motion.
The two friends kept their silence until the dishes had been arranged and tea served and as the servants exited the room Mireille asked: “Who was that rude person? Can we help somehow?”
Alea looked as if she had bitten into something sour, “she is the niece of my grandmother which makes her my great-cousin of the maternal line. She is the wife of the son of the duke of Nordmark the duchy who is most interested in Grunewald at the moment. And yes there are no or not many such coincidences in life.”
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“Is your grandmother all right? I can perhaps make a potion for her? I hope that I don’t overestimate my abilities but my mother at least was the best apothecary of Firswending.” ‘And I know what's wrong,’ she added internally.
“Yes, that would be appreciated. As I mentioned, she has been reticent in using a physician. But she would probably accept a gift. You can use the laboratory in the basement of the workshop. I will assist you.” She looked a bit pleased with the prospect and bit into a piece of bread slathered with marmalade.
The breakfast concluded without any disruptions. “I would like to see this rumored workshop too.” Mireille looked at Alyssa and Alea.
“There is space enough, but please no touching anything in there, even I don’t know what some of that is.” Alea scrunched her nose. “My grandfather sometimes began a project and left it halfway only to come back years later and complete it. But sometimes he did not, or he no longer could. My memories of that time are unreliable but that I still know. So we have some half-finished works of magical and mechanical prototypes. You see what I mean?”
The three went to the workshop together, the morning air was brisk and seemed to hold the first cold of the coming winter, rime coated the grass in shadowed corners of the old building and walls.
“Brr. I was just getting used to not freezing in the mountains!” Mireille complained.
The door to the workshop opened with a loud creaking noise. “That could use some oil.” Alea mused.
“What's this?” Mireille went to the automatons, poking at the one they had opened up yesterday.
“Keep your fingers away from the strange knick-knacks. You could lose them both figuratively and in reality.” Alyssa pulled her away.
“Could one of you please lift those rolls of fabric?” Alea stood before an assortment of expensive but also old-looking roles of textiles. With a concerted effort and Alea mostly supervising they uncovered a hatch. Opening that, they saw a steep ladder made of sturdy-looking wood descend into the darkness.
After shouting the word for ‘light’ in old Allisairian some glow-globes activated bathing the laboratory in a pale light.
“Does no one ever clean around here?” Mireille wondered as plumes of dust rose with every step while they went downwards.
“It's been some years,” Alea answered.
The laboratory was neither as elaborate nor as spacious as the workshop but it was leagues ahead of what Alyssa was used to. With a sparkle in her eyes, she went through alembic, assorted glassware, and boiler and last the magically activated fireplate and ventilation.
“This is a dream come true for every apothecary and even most alchemists! I would love to work here for a bit. But I fear the ingredients, other than the mineral ones, are somewhat past their prime.”
Alea looked amused at that. “Give me a list and I will send a servant to buy them for you. That is the least I can do as you are doing it for grandma.”
Alyssa looked towards Asandria who was silently floating behind her left shoulder. ‘Yes I know what you want, you need not spell it out. Get a bit of stationery and some parchment, I am no master alchemist though, so I can only make some suggestions based on my knowledge of the soul.’
Alyssa grabbed a stylus, some not completely dried out ink, and brittle parchment before writing down the suggestions coming from the elven specter.
She thought about the ingredients and added a few of her own while striking two of Asandria's suggestions because they were too outlandish.
“Here, this is a list of things that could be useful. It is highly likely to only have a bit of a strengthening effect so don’t overdo it with expensive reagents, I don’t know the prices if those here for example can be acquired.” She pointed at dragon blood and rose of eternal frost.
Alea held her spider construct over the parchment moving it as she read. “That should mostly be doable, dragon blood...not so much I fear. But it is not impossible to get, so it was not a bad idea to include it in the list. I will get a servant to try and buy the lot. It might take some hours for them though. Let us go back to the workshop. There was something I had been wanting to try.”
Alea then gave the list to a maid tidying fallen leaves outside in the garden, who bowed and went to look for someone to acquire the ingredients.
Mireille went for training after she was thrown out of the workshop because of repeated meddling with the automatons. The two scientifically inclined girls then began their experimenting with the broken crystal core.
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Lunch arrived but before that, they were called to their rooms, where the first of the clothes they had been measured for had arrived.
Alyssa had a dress in dark blue and violet with ruffled sleeves and embroidered at the hem with blooming lilacs. Mireille got a dress in a pale orange color embroidered with orange blossoms. Both dresses were enchanted to repair small damage and in case that was no longer possible magic could be applied to a tastefully hidden copper disc inscribed with runes and dusted with powdered crystal to close larger tears.
Alea who met them on the way to the dining room explained, “We have to keep up appearances in front of my great-cousin. She will find fault with anything and try to annoy my poor grandma to death. I don’t know what brought her here, but it can't be anything good. Thankfully we had those clothes made, they are more than sufficiently genteel attire for a simple luncheon. And she had insisted to meet the saviors of her dear Maximilian. There was nothing my grandma could do.” She scrunched her nose and smoothed her dress in a nervous motion. The mechanical spider waved her forelegs. Cyrus hopped to her other shoulder and rubbed his head against her cheek, surprising both girls.
“Cyrus might be the first empathetic wyvern I have ever heard of.” Mireille dryly remarked.
“It's the familiar bond. You both gain a bit of the personality of the other, mostly from master to familiar but there has been reputedly some bleed-through in the other direction. I am curious how that will manifest.” Alea looked a bit embarrassed but answered succinctly while stroking the wyvern.
Mathilde von Nordmark was already sitting near the head of the table to the right of Adelaide and was talking animatedly as they entered.
“Ah, the rumored saviors of my dear Maximilian. I am glad to finally make your acquaintance. I am Mathilde von Nordmark.” She nodded in a friendly greeting.
“This here are Alyssa Miner and Mireille Annirstochter” Alea took it upon herself to introduce the two.
“Pleased to meet you,” Alyssa bowed awkwardly. Mathilde raised an eyebrow but smiled broadly.
"What a delightful young country maid."
"A pleasure to make your acquaintance." Mireille bowed too.
Cyrus on a silently voiced command flew towards a table at the side where some thoughtful person had put some cold chicken slices.
Adelaide looked fondly at Alea her pale complexion covered in subtly applied make-up, even if she was not better in fact at least she looked better.
“You must tell me all about your meeting. I could not sleep when I heard that there had been an ambush. The authorities around here are incompetent, simply dreadful! There is no security.” Mathilde drained her glass filled with red wine. A drop remained on her lower lip which she blotted daintily with a napkin. Looking at the red stain she continued. “There could have been serious consequences. It does not bear thinking about.” Glittering eyes fixed on the two friends.
Servants brought in the hot dishes.
“Oh what an adorable dress, is it one of Hadley's creations? She makes the most beautiful embroidery. Seems quite new, I knew Adelaide would care for you properly, where did you say you came from? A small mining town, how quaint…”
The meal was very tiring, the only saving grace was that Mathilde had less time to attack Adelaide, concerned as she was with ferreting out every detail of Alyssa's and Mireille's background. And she was good at that. Using needling and jabs interspersed with compliments. As the meal drew to a close everyone but madam von Nordmark heaved a sigh of relief.
The group of girls tarried a bit until they were alone.
“What was that!?” Mireille exhaled heavily.
“Do you really want to know?” Alea raised, then tilted her head a bit, the blindfold made it difficult but she had a serious air about her.
“Yes, I think I, no we,” Alyssa looked at Mireille who nodded, ”would want to know.”
“Then come with me to my rooms, it is quiet and more private there.”
They ascended two flights of stairs and then went down the left-hand corridor to the third door on the right. The rooms beyond were richly but somberly appointed in dark colors. Books lay haphazardly about, piles of them lay on the desk near the window.
And Alea began to talk
“I have to preface what I am about to say. My memories of my grandfather, the accident, and my early youth are disjointed and incomplete. I think the trauma is to blame. Most of what I know, grandma told me. I was sick for a long time."
She silently adjusted the spider on her shoulder. "Now, where was I? Grandfather was a Gildburg, the third son, my grandmother was a von Nordmark and my mother was Liane von Gildburg before she married my father the second son of the viscount of Graufurt. But that does not answer your question, does it?” Alea sighed, “My father and mother have been dead since a few years ago, in the same ‘accident’ that took my eyes they lost their lives. My grandfather sought to help me, but there were complications. I don’t know what happened but he also did not live long after the experiments that granted me little Cecily here.”
“Your spider is named Cecily?” Alyssa smiled softly, “a beautiful name. You have a lot of sadness in your past.”
“Mh.” Alea was silent for a moment, “thank you. But what I was long-windedly trying to explain was: As the viscount of Graufurt, my uncle, does not have children of his own, my brother and I stand to inherit the title, but should something happen...then it is complicated but possible to all end up with the Nordmarks. I dislike explaining all that.” she rubbed at her nose, “but I find it all too possible that there will be problems related to that in our further travels, as both heirs of the viscounty will be on the same road, far from any guards or soldiers...Mathilde had tried some time ago to get the guardianship of both of us, the children need a family and all that, but thankfully my grandmother prevailed.” The spider moved her legs restlessly. “If you want…” she paused, “I would not hold it against you to travel separately.”
“We won't.” Mireille was quick. “I don’t leave friends in the lurch and you and your brother, your grandma too, are really nice people.” She then proceeded to hug the shocked Alea.
“What are you…!”
"You are even smaller than I am!"
"That's completely beside the point." Alea still very stiff went red in the face and pouted.
Alyssa smiled. “No, we will not leave you and because we now know something is coming we can prepare a bit. But what I don’t understand, why are they here, now? That should alert you and your brother, shouldn’t it?”
“I don’t know either.” Alea was pensive and though she seemed happy to be hugged also very embarrassed as she began to extricate herself.
Asandria smiled, but it was not a smile inspired by happiness. ‘She is probably irritated by the failure- if it was her doing- and wanted to get a complete picture and perhaps bribe you, find some weaknesses, those sorts of things.’ she scoffed, ‘humans playing at intrigue.’
“Was that Asandria?” Mireille preoccupied with Alea said.
Silence reigned.
“Who is Asandria?” Alea looked confused.