TODD

“If anyone asks, we are from Melbourne and we spent the night in the shop,” Grandmother said as they got ready to transport back to Londontown in the morning. “No one is to eat or drink anything in the square and never leave your partner's sight.”

“Yes, Grandmother,” Sarah said in her best little girl voice. Grandmother snorted, she knew she was repeating herself. She spent the night thinking about Narrative, which always left her troubled. She considered not going back at all, but thought that would reflect badly on her honesty and might get her cast as the villain. She had been there before and it was not a role she wanted to play again.

They went through the departure door and waited for Grandmother. Instead of the lower tier camouflage they used to leave the transportation room yesterday, Grandmother cast the higher tier conceal. She held the spell until they arrived back at their stall in the market. There was no market today, so all the other stalls were empty. When Grandmother dropped the spell, the people who were waiting, leaning against the storefronts or sitting on the planters, exhibited some surprise.

Sarah knelt down to redraw her circle. She was using a different pattern today, Todd wondered if anyone would notice. Grandmother set up her folding stool next to the payment pillar and sat. She nodded to Alex.

“Calling all who signed the list,” Alex announced to the square, in a loud clear voice. “We are here to uphold our promises and pay for your spells. Six iron for any spell, twelve if you demonstrate it. If it is a spell we don’t know, there is a bonus. Come forth and claim your coins.” For a moment there was no movement. Todd wondered if there were threats, he wondered if Grandmother’s paranoia was rubbing off on him.

A young boy came running up. Todd knew there were no children on the list yesterday. He wondered what Grandmother would do. “What is your name?” Alex asked. He held a copy of yesterday's list in his hand. He was getting ready to make a theatrical display of looking up the child’s name even though he too must know there were no children listed.

“Not me,” the boy said. “I got twenty four iron for making the water hot and cold!” he said excitedly. “Hurry, Mama,” he called. “Don’t miss it today!” A woman in her early twenties rose to her feet behind the boy. She was sitting on the edge of a nearby planter. The woman was wearing blue wizard silks that stretched over a protruding belly, heavy with child. She could not have worn the silks yesterday, Todd would remember that. He found he did remember her, but not from the market. She was one of the few women in the inn the night before.

Todd suddenly knew why Grandmother insisted on paying the children. They were an introduction to the adults. At the same time he wondered if they wanted to gain this woman’s trust.

“Don’t let her touch you,” Todd said quietly to Alex as he stepped in front of his teammate. He took the list from Alex’s hands. He turned a brilliant smile onto the boy’s mother. “Your name, my lady?”

“Irene,” the woman said clearly. “I was named for my great aunt.”

Todd scanned the list, even though he knew that name wasn’t there either. “I am sorry, Irene. I don’t see that name here.”

“I may have given my nickname, Ira,” the woman responded more quietly. “Irene carries a heavy load here.”

“It does everywhere,” Todd responded. He looked at the list again. There at the very bottom was Ira. “Here we are,” he said loudly. He made a show of marking it off. “Step forward into the ring of silence to speak to Grandmother’s scribe,” Todd pronounced. Damn, he thought to himself, I think Alex is wearing off on me.

Ira nodded, and touched her young son’s head, who was dancing around his mother in excitement. “Wait for me here,” she told the boy. She stepped forward into the circle. Todd shifted around to keep his bulk between her and Alex.

Sarah cast blur and muffle with Companion inside the circle at her back. Todd kept his eyes on the slightly vague figures as he, Alex and Ellen shifted around so the woman wouldn’t get near Alex on the way out either. A handful of people drew near, giving their names to Alex. He confirmed their presence on the list and reformed yesterday’s line.

The young boy stayed close to Todd. He was talking excitedly about all the warrior skills he was going to learn when he grew up. Todd couldn’t help smiling at the boy. Todd was him once upon a time.

Sarah dismissed her muffle spell and handed two slips to Ira. “Take these to Grandmother,” Sarah said clearly. “She will witness your demonstration of the spells and pay you.” Ellen took the hint and stayed where she was. For today she was paired with Alex and wasn’t supposed to leave his side.

Ira handed the slips to Grandmother. Grandmother did a quick scan of the list. She rose from her stool. “We will go to the yard where you can demonstrate these cast spells first,” Grandmother announced. Ira collected her son and they headed across the courtyard. Todd followed behind. His partner for the day was Grandmother. He would ensure that nothing happened to her.

When they reached the square’s protection crystal, Grandmother stopped. “For everyone’s safety,” she said to Ira, “I have to insist you touch the crystal.”

“Ok” Ira said after a quick look at Todd. The crystal flooded with a light blue. Tier two, Todd thought to himself.

“Good,” Grandmother commented. She moved on past the crystal to the yard. They went to the magic area where Grandmother cast a blur and told Ira to run through her cast spells. Ira cast a couple tiers of ice-bolt and ice-slick. Todd was surprised Ira didn’t know ice-wall, which was a low tier shield type spell.

From there they headed to the public sanitation facility where Ira changed the water temperature.

“Now the heal spell,” Grandmother said, pulling her knife. She made a shallow cut across the back of her off hand, and returned the knife to her belt.

“I don’t know…” Ira said with a glance at Todd and at the door where anyone could come in and watch them.

“No one will see us,” Todd said to her. “Don’t leave Grandmother bleeding.”

“Cast it,” Grandmother commanded. Ira cast a tier one heal. There wasn’t a tier zero heal, so this was the simplest version. All human’s outside of their Home Square added extras to casting. Todd admitted that even some of the citizens of Home Square did it. They tried to correct their own down to the required parts when they saw it, but some people were just too set in their ways to change.

The extras Ira added to the tier one heal seemed excessive and showy. Somewhere buried in the middle of it were the four symbols required for heal. The cut on the back of Grandmother’s hand closed as her blood was reabsorbed into her skin.

“Good,” Grandmother commented, checking the spell off the list. She didn’t allow any sign of the pain heal caused her to show on her face. Todd remembered all the times Grandmother cut herself to teach him heal. She rarely showed any sign of pain. “Can you cast the tier two version?” she asked.

“No,” Ira admitted. They headed back to the market stall, where only Sarah and Companion remained. Ellen and Alex escorted a group off to demonstrate their skills. There were two groups of people milling around now. Some held slips of paper in their hands and were waiting for payout or the opportunity to demonstrate their spells. The rest were still waiting to talk to Sarah.

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Grandmother went to the payment pillar and set up the transfer for Ira. Ira looked at the sum. “Can I get it in materials instead?” she asked Grandmother. Grandmother looked over the list of spells Sarah wrote down during Ira’s interview. This was just theater since Grandmother already looked at the list multiple times.

“You didn’t list any crafting spells,” Grandmother remarked. “Did you not understand we pay for them too?”

“I understood,” Ira responded. “I don’t know any.”

“I trade out materials for the coin only for those who have the skill to process them. I want to promote the development of crafting in order to increase the quality of life for everyone in the structure,” Grandmother explained in a kind voice. “You will just sell the material on, increasing the price of the final product. Without that mark up the coins I give non-crafters will actually purchase more of the final products crafters produce.”

“Surely as family…” Ira stopped talking suddenly. Grandmother's face had gone cold.

“I remember you from the inn last night. I did not hear you speak for me when I was denied hospitality. That is not the actions of family. We are not enemies, but neither are we friends, never mind family. Do you contest the total?”

“No,” Ira responded in a small voice.

“Take it. That is all you will get from me.”

Ira swept the coins into her inventory. She gathered her son and headed back to the inn. Grandmother’s anger was a real thing. Todd swore he could feel it in his bones. Grandmother watched the woman walk away with her son. Grandmother took a deep breath and shook her head. The pressure eased. A visible struggle went across her features. She released her breath and it was gone. She turned with a smile to the next person in line, reaching out to take the slip of vellum from their hand. A slow murmur started up again and Todd realized everyone in earshot went silent during the exchange.

Control might not understand any human languages, Todd thought to himself, but it understood Grandmother just fine.

There were no new spells today, but the leatherworker turned up near noon and Grandmother paid him four greens. Three for the unique spells he demonstrated to Ellen and one for his demonstration of how to streamline them. The man was so ecstatic. Todd wondered if he should escort the man home before he did something crazy.

Soon after the last name on the list was checked and the market area of the square was empty again except for them. “Time to head out,” Grandmother said with some relief as she rose from her stool and collapsed it back down. Sarah was removing the ‘circle of silence’ from the floor. When Sarah finished, Grandmother cast conceal and they were gone.

“It is good to be home,” Ellen commented. They were gathered at their usual table in their Home Square’s inn, eating a late lunch.

“We are lucky they didn’t poison yesterday's lunch,” Todd commented over his food.

“I don’t think the innkeeper realized I didn’t belong to the square,” Alex said. He took a large bite and nodded to the blue on his collar.

“I shouldn’t have sent you alone for the food,” Grandmother admitted.

“I’ll forgive you if you buy the beer tonight,” Alex responded.

“Maybe your beer, but not Companion’s. I am not certain I can afford that,” Grandmother responded. Todd choked on his food as laughter erupted from him. This comment was from the woman who just handed out more money than Todd had seen in one place in his lifetime. Then Todd remembered that bright copper Grandmother loaned him when he first tried out the transportation system. He gave it back to her at the first opportunity. A bright copper was worth thirty six greens.

“Companion, we humans have a problem when someone is healed by another with the same color of magic. It creates a…. hunger for more healing. Do your people have that problem?” Todd asked. He realized that Companion didn’t seem worried about one of them going off by themselves in any of the human squares. The selkie only ever worried that he wasn’t left alone. He needed one of them nearby to put in his beer order.

“Yes,” Companion confirmed. “That is why teams have mixed colors, like us.”

“If it does happen, do you have a way to fix it?” Todd asked.

“Just don’t heal until hunger is gone,” Companion replied. He said it like ‘the hunger’ wasn’t that bad and could be ignored. Perhaps Grandmother was right about a mismatch in human biology, because the addiction was far, far worse in humans.

“That can be a long time,” Todd observed. “Sometimes we can’t wait.”

“Use a greater heal from a correct color. Might need multiple heals depending,” Companion offered.

“Do you think it could be that easy?” Alex asked.

“Maybe,” Ellen commented. “Multiple heals would not be fun. I can see how people might give up too soon.” Grandmother was looking thoughtful.

“What have you thought of?” Todd asked her.

“I may have seen that before. It was a little chaotic at the time and she was sort of on the run…” She trailed off. Todd got the feeling she wasn’t going to explain that one any better. “Unfortunately we will probably get a chance to try it one day.”

“If they do get me,” Alex said with a serious tone in his voice, “I want you to drag me out to the Speedwell, and keep me there.”

“That is a brilliant idea!” Grandmother responded enthusiastically. “I can’t believe I didn’t think of it.”

“So you will do it?” Alex asked.

“Of course,” Grandmother agreed. “I would never leave you behind. I’ll hit you with a couple tier five heals too, just in case that works.”

“Companion said ‘a correct color’, I wonder if a self-heal would work?” Sarah commented. Everyone shifted uncomfortably, except for Companion. They all learned how to cast a tier one heal on themselves after Grandmother did it with a tier five heal, in a last ditch effort to save her life. She mentioned it earlier, but they never seem to get around to learning it. Self heals were incredibly painful and tended to make the caster lose consciousness, leaving them vulnerable to further attack. Grandmother’s tier five spell left her in a coma for five days.

“You heal you?” Companion asked in obvious confusion. Companion was their weakest healer. He did not know the spell when they found him and he joined the team. Grandmother injured herself repeatedly in order to teach heal to Todd. As a red, Todd could only heal violet and orange magic users safely. Before they discovered Companion’s people, Grandmother was the only person he could heal, since there were no human orange magic users, and she was the only adult violet they knew. Todd returned the favor with Companion, teaching the selkie both the tier one and tier two heal spells. Tier three was their next goal. Companion could also safely heal Sarah since she was a yellow. When Sarah offered to help train Companion, Todd wouldn’t hear of it. Sarah was their youngest member. She was Ellen’s younger sister and they were all protective of her.

“Oh yes, my friend,” Todd said to the selkie. “It is not for the pain adverse. I will show you before we start on tier three.”

“Londontown was our last square on the network,” Sarah observed. “Should we head out to the Speedwell and enter all this data?”

“I know of three other squares where for different reasons I never touched the crystal. Plus Chicago, which doesn’t have a crystal,” Grandmother commented. “We will need to travel to the closest neighbor and go through the halls. I’d like to visit all of them before we head back out.”

“Ok,” Sarah responded. “I’m going to draw a kind of world map on that large sheet of vellum we got. If you give me the locations of those settlements I can add them.” Grandmother agreed to do that after lunch. She went on to say that she thought they needed a break before starting these last settlements.

“What do we have on the to-do list?” Todd asked. Everyone offered up projects they wanted to accomplish. Most of the tasks could be accomplished individually or with the help of just one or two others. They agreed to work on individual tasks for the next six days, while finalizing the route they would take for the last of the settlements.

“You should show Sarah your room,” Todd said to Grandmother, just as they were breaking up after lunch.

“My room?” Grandmother asked. “Why?”

“The spell hint in the chair’s flowers was definitely the tier three heal,” Todd observed. “I didn’t recognize the spell encoded in the lobes of the leaves. Plus, I didn’t really give the wall tapestry a detailed look.”

“Tapestry?” Sarah said. Now everyone was looking at Grandmother with interest, even Companion. Grandmother gave Todd a betrayed look.