Chapter Twenty-Eight

“I apologize if the meal is not to your liking. As you can guess, quality food is difficult to secure on such a long journey.”

Nia had no idea what Marina was talking about; the food was delicious. She gave the dark-haired woman a smile between mouthfuls of some creamy stew with plenty of meat and caramelized vegetables floating around in it. Nia at least had good enough manners to swallow her food before replying. “This is great, really. Thank you so much.”

“Oh, stop. You have thanked me enough.” Marian told her with exaggerated bashfulness as she pressed her palm to her flushed cheek. “Though it pleases me to hear that you are enjoying yourself.”

Nia shoveled another spoonful of food into her waiting mouth with a happy smile. She felt increasingly comfortable around Marina and enjoyed their light conversation over dinner. They talked about nothing important, only mundane things such as their favorite foods, the colors they found the most pleasing, and the best ways to stitch seams to make them stronger and less noticeable. She had even convinced Nia to teach her how to tailor dresses while on their way to The Royal Seat.

Nia found only Vincent, her husband and the supposed owner of the merchant company, strange. The ancient-looking man had only said a few words the entire night, and they were entirely nonsensical. He mumbled and rasped about his newborn son keeping him awake at night and about being late to the guild leaders' meeting. When he wasn’t talking nonsense, he was staring through her with glassy, distant eyes as Marina spoon-fed him broth.

“I’m sorry, Marina, but I just have to ask,” Nia started just as Marina had finished feeding her husband a small vial of orange liquid so bright to be nearly fluorescent. “What is wrong with Sir Bucholz?”

Nia knew it was out of her place to ask, and she hoped that her host wouldn’t take offense to her curiosity. But he looked to her to be at death’s door, and if she could, she wanted to help. Of course, her healing magic was weak. One needed to know much about the functions of the body to form the mana properly and not cause more harm than good, and Mister Greeny had only just begun to teach her.

Marina didn’t answer her right away. She instead stoppered the vial and tucked it away inside a small, padded box resting on the table in front of her. It was an ornate piece of woodwork, with intricate carvings and fillagree sweeping in pleasant swirls and gentle curves that almost looked like writing to her eyes. Gold leaf accented the box's deep mahogany, and a pea-sized azure gem was embedded in the middle of the hinged lid. Nia could almost feel the cold coming off the gem in waves but was too afraid to reach out and see if it was just in her head.

Marina didn’t look angry. Instead, she looked apprehensive, reminding Nia of the time that the forest hare she kept as a pet had died and her father’s face when he sat her down to break the news. That look made her more nervous than it probably should have, but she hadn’t realized how desperately she needed someone to talk to and could only hope that she hadn’t already ruined their fledgling relationship.

“I want to be honest with you, Nia.” Marina finally started, looking up from the closed mahogany box and into Nia’s eyes. “But I am afraid of what you may think of me if I tell you.”

Now, it was Nia’s turn to pause. She didn’t think there was anything she could say to make her think negatively of her. It surely couldn’t be that bad. “You can be honest. Whatever it is, I won’t think bad of you.”

Marina took her eyes off Nia and turned to her drooling husband next to her. The lavish tent they were sitting in was empty, and the servants Marina commanded wouldn’t enter unless called for. No one would interrupt her next words. “I am not his first wife nor his second. I doubt he even remembers my name.” Marina shook her head, “Many of his old associates call me a succubus, a gold-digging whore, or worse. They are wrong, though; I didn’t marry him for his money or status; I married him to keep what we built together from falling apart.”

“What do you mean?” Nia asked as she looked between the two of them.

“I was his secretary,” Marina said with a sigh. “When I was no older than you, and he was… not as old as he was now.” A mirthless laugh came from Marina’s kohl-lined lips. “Vincent foisted whatever work he could upon my shoulders, and I would do it gladly. Do you know what you get when you do a job well, Nia?”

Nia shook her head.

“More work,” Came Marina’s reply. “Vincent saw that I had a gift for numbers, that my lack of formal education did not impede my ability to catch things that even he missed. Soon enough, I was no longer his secretary but his unofficial partner.”

“Unofficial?”

“Women are not permitted to own a business or do anything, really.” Marina spat with scorn. Her face was twisted in anger as she took a breath to calm herself. “He paid me well, so I did not complain, but all my work went without recognition. No one knew of me as I worked diligently to make his company larger and more profitable. He reaped the rewards, and I got a few gold coins in my pocket.”

Years went by like this. It was the best I could do, so I stayed with the company. His first wife died, and he remarried. Then, his second wife gave him a son before she, too, died in childbirth. Vincent was distraught and swore to raise his son to be a worthy heir to the company that he built, thinking nothing of me.”

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I looked for any way I could to stop that from happening, but the kingdom's laws were explicit. There was only one thing I could do: keep him from passing down the company.”

Nia’s stomach dropped as Marina’s words soaked into her brain. She looked at her empty bowl suspiciously, a sharp pain stabbing her bowels as she imagined some kind of poison that laced the stew, working something nefarious in her body. “You’re poisoning him?!” Nia nearly cried.

“What? No, I am not poisoning him.” Marina laughed uproariously, clutching her flat stomach as tears welled in her eyes. “I am keeping him alive, silly girl. His mind was growing ill with each passing day, and I knew it was only a matter of time before Nathaniel would inherit what I had built. That boy has been a constant irritation. So , I married the old fool to keep the company within my control, at least for a while longer.”

“So, that was medicine?” Nia asked about the vial of orange something. It wasn’t like the medicine they had back in the village, and the alchemy Mister Greeny had taught her was derived from what he had also learned from the forest and the villages within. What was in the fancy box was something entirely new to her.

“A certain kind of medicine, yes.” Marina turned the box to face her and opened the lid, revealing half a dozen other vials, with only one still containing the orange fluid. “Regenerative potions. Very rare and extremely expensive.”

Nia leaned forward and reached out to the one vial still containing the potion. The inside of the box was cold, almost as cold as it was outside the warmth of the tent. Magic must have been at play here, but she couldn’t figure out where or how. She ignored that for now and inspected the vial. She wanted to pick it up to get a better look but then thought better of it. If she happened to break the fragile-looking thing, she would have no way to pay for it. She still didn’t have any of the money the people used outside the forest.

“What does it do?” She asked, full of curiosity. She pushed any lingering concerns about Marina or her actions to the back of her mind.

“From what I am told, it uses the aether within it to help the body repair any damage done to it, even old wounds long since healed over. Unfortunately, it does nothing to reverse the flow of time…” Marina said forlornly.

Nia mulled that over momentarily and thought back on her lessons in the forest. Mister Greeny had taught her much about the hundreds of mystical plants and herbs within the Endless Forest and the many methods used to combine them and bring out the desired effects. A handful of different herbs sounded as if they could compare to what was in the vial, but she had never seen them in person, let alone concocted the elixir that could make them useful to Marina.

“I know some alchemy,” Nia offered, wanting to help with the woman’s predicament. “I—I could help…”

“You do?” Marina seemed excited at that revelation but quickly schooled her expression. “A good alchemist is so hard to find. Most affordable ones are self-taught charlatans who only know how to heal scrapes and bruises, if they are competent at all. The less reputable ones are more likely to kill you with whatever concoctions they come up with.” She paused to take back the box and the last potion it held. “I have tried and failed to find something else that wasn’t so hard to procure. Anything you could do to help would mean the world to me. And an alchemist would be such a great addition…”

“An addition? To what?” Nia asked, catching the words slipping from Marina’s mouth.

For the first time during their conversation, Marina looked about the tent to ensure they were alone before leaning in to close the distance between them. “I hinted at it during our conversation in the carriage, and it must remain a secret between us. Do you understand?”

Nia nodded quickly, a serious expression on her soft face. Marina gave her a genuine smile before continuing. “There are others like me and you. Women who want to uncover the secrets of the world, to obtain the power that those mages deny to everyone else. Instead of taking tea or repeating insipid gossip, we scour the libraries for forgotten knowledge; we fund expeditions to explore lost ruins; we help each other to learn the spells needed to protect ourselves and our homes from those who think women are nothing more than wombs to serve them.” Marina took a moment to breathe and compose herself after her voice grew more heated than she would have liked. “It is difficult and dangerous work. If those in power were to discover what we have been up to, it would be our heads and our families’.”

We are always interested in other women who share our passion and would love it if you joined us.”

Marina looked at her expectantly, her hands clasped together in front of her chest and her hazel eyes glistening in the candlelight. Nia almost agreed immediately. Just the idea of other women who could be her friends like Marina was enough to cause her heart to flutter in anticipation, but that thought was immediately snuffed by why she was here in the first place. Her mother.

“You’ve been so nice to me…” Nia said, her eyes lowering to the table in shame. “But I feel like I’ve been lying to you.”

“Why is that, Nia? I know that you are not a mage, and I must say that it would be better not to masquerade as one anymore. They do not take kindly to impersonators.” Marina said to her before she could finish.

“No, it isn’t that. It’s the reason I’m here to begin with.” Nia took a deep breath, ready to tell her everything about her village and why she was looking for the elves that were taken. “My mother, she is from—”

The ground beneath their feet started to tremble, cutting off her words as she steadied herself against the table. Marina did the same as her head whipped around as if she would see what was causing the disturbance. The earth shook for a few more seconds and then stopped just as abruptly as it began. Nia thought that that was it. It was just a strange occurrence outside the forest that might have been normal, but then a shrill roar, unlike she had ever heard, filled the tent, causing her to clamp her hands over her ringing ears.

Then, there was silence for a brief moment where even the air between them stood still, only to be shattered by another piercing wail, this one much closer than the first.