We worked undisturbed until around luncheon. Solum brought piles of books up to our tables, where we would then go through them. To my relief, the person behind the knock wasn’t Dominic, it was Lila. Her eyes lit up when she saw the Lamellae on the table.

“Dominic said you went to the market?” She inquired. 

“Yes, here is the leftover market money.” I handed the money bag to her.

She immediately undid the drawstring, looking inside. I had hoped she wouldn’t do that here.

“One Leera and a quarter left. Did you spend more than half the food money on the Lamellae?!”

“Yes.”

“Well at least we have lunch organised for today.” She stepped forward to the table.

“Absolutely not.” I said sharply. “The Lamellae is being used for our lesson.”

“And what then, do you expect us to eat?”

“I am sure that you will figure it out, as I did last night.”

She glared at me. My heart dropped a bit. I had hoped we could be friends. She was the closest to my age in the household. I felt like with this act I was cementing an antagonistic relationship that I didn’t want.

“Fine.”

Before she left, a voice called out that had been quiet until now. 

“Lila.” 

“Yes Lady Ibis?”

“Would you be so kind as to bring something for the Lamellae to eat?”

“Of course.”

The glare from before had turned into a flaming glower. By the look she shot me before she left, she blamed me. Solum had known how to fan the flames and done so. She was standing close to the child, cooing at it.

“Mama Marin did not think of getting you food, but I did.” Just as I thought perhaps she was warming up to the Lamaelle, she added, “we are going to fatten you up, yes we are.” 

It snapped at her fingers when they got too close to the bars. That was why we hadn’t opened the cage until now. Whenever something came close, it tried to bite. A bite from a mouth like that wouldn’t be as easy to bear as a bite from General had been.

Clearing my throat, I asked, “shall we continue?”

“It is not worth it, when we will be disturbed again in a few minutes.”

“What do you mean?”

“Lila will go to Dominic. He’ll be here soon.”

The mounting pressure I felt in the next few minutes made the innocent knock that came a relief.

“Hello Dominic.”

If you spot this story on Amazon, know that it has been stolen. Report the violation.

“Domina Marin, perhaps you could step outside for a moment.”

I closed the door behind me. The soft sound of the latch closing louder than it should have been.

“Explain.” He demanded.

“What do you mean?” 

“You spent more than half the money on an expensive meat, and now you are keeping it from Lila. What are you thinking?”

“My first priority here is to be a companion and teacher to Lady Solum. The Lamellae is part of an important lesson for her.”

“Is it? And where will the money come from? Your pocket? Or shall we all just starve for a week?”

“Deduct it from the lessons budget.”

“There is no such budget.”

“Well then, I will speak to Lord Ibis to rectify that.” Lifting my nose, in what I thought was a display of spoiled lady arrogance, I made a hurried exit that was too quick to be anything other than fleeing. I sighed in relief, when no other knock was sounded.

“Now we can continue.” Solum said. But another timid knock sounded, and with dread in my stomach, I opened it. It was Lucas. He was holding out far from his body a bowl of half rotting fish. It looked to be the leftovers from the fish served at the luncheon interview. It stank horribly.

“From Lila, for the Lamellae.” He said.

***

Although we researched until evening, we didn’t even find the official book containing the law concerning the Lamellae. After dinner, I spoke with Lord Ibis about a budget for the lessons. With the drama from before, I wasn’t expecting it to be easy. However he was most congenial about it. He asked me how much I thought I needed, and with that I had a teaching allowance. Judging by the way Dominics eyes followed me, I didn’t assume that it would be over as easily as that.

That evening, in the privacy of my room, I carefully opened the cage, taking my hands back quickly before the perfunctory snap of his jaws. When I saw the hesitation of the child in exiting, I wished I had done it sooner. I couldn’t have done it in the family study, I reminded myself sternly. There are precious books there.

The child stank of rotten fish and it’s own excrement. I had lugged two buckets of luke warm water up to my room for this. Talking in a soft voice, I coached the child out of the cage. I would need to name it soon, I thought idily. It slid into the filled bucket without much persuasion needed. I supposed being a being of water, that is what the child wanted all along.

The difficulty came when I tried to wash it. I had a clean rag in hand that I had planned to use. However whenever I came close to it, it screeched at me. Eventually I gave up. I mimed cleaning myself with the cloth, and then placed it on the floor. Perhaps it would copy me.

We watched each other for a long time then. I was sitting on the bed, and the child in the bucket. Eventually, when the lamp burned low. I tried coming closer to the child. No noise was forthcoming, nor did its eyes follow me. I realized by the rhythmic movement of it’s chest, that it must have fallen asleep, without lids, the eyes didn’t close. I lay down and joined it. It wasn’t until morning that I realized I had forgotten to try to dream travel.

***

A hitch of the breath was the break in noise Solum made, when she found something. The difference in noise compared to the turning of pages and even breathing until now made that hitch as loud as a ringing bell.

“What is it?” I asked.

“I do not know.” She handed me the open book. It was a particularly old one.

“The Treaty of the Four has brought peace and hope to the city. Once an enemy, now a tentative friend. The Lamaelle have much to teach.”

“I don’t understand it, why would there be mention of a treaty? Or of teaching?” Solum asked.

I flipped the book over, to see the cover. There was no title, but the first page revealed that it had been a journal of a head guardsman who had been charged with keeping the law and order of the city.

“I don’t know, but I think we’ve been looking in the wrong direction the whole time. We should be researching past treaties, not laws.”

Impatiently I waited until Solum came back up with more books. But that was our biggest breakthrough that day. We didn’t find more. Tired but satisfied, I trudged to the kitchens. It was again my turn to cook tonight. Solum had been mainly indifferent to the research until that sentence. Now, because of this mystery, she looked through the books with a frown and a fever matching mine. Her past enmity put aside for now, but not forgotten.

Something was different when I entered the kitchen this time. It was a small one, Aemilia’s chair wasn’t turned to face the fire. It was facing the kitchen table. I had a sinking feeling I knew what this was about.

“Hello Aemilia, how is your throat-sore?”

“Good enough for this talk.” She said.