The girl led Orenda in through the archway, and Orenda was thankful that this time the guards did not try to speak to her. She was beginning to think that perhaps if she was as rude as she had been, maybe more adults would keep their mouths shut, and she wouldn’t have to deal with them.
The inside of the building was more layrythian than Orenda had anticipated, and she quickly lost her bearings as they walked down halls, took corners, walked up winding staircases and through rooms, until she came into something that she was familiar with. The rows of bookshelves stretched as far as they had when she had been staying with Ellie, but here she did not have the same feeling of comfort. She was not the one who knew these aisles, not the one hiding in these shadows. Her guard was firmly up as she allowed Bubbider to lead her up another staircase, and did not lower it until they were firmly inside the room that was more open, less difficult to hide in.
There were bookshelves lining all the walls, and a single table with many chairs set in the middle. It was obviously part of the library, but it was set off, by itself, and it made Orenda curious.
“This is the research room,” Bubbider explained, “None of these books are supposed to leave this place. And this is the little room I found.”
She opened another door, and the room was not what Orenda had expected.
Yes, it was a bedroom. There was a bed, and that made it a bedroom.
But there were also tall candelabras, a huge dressing mirror, a podium that seemed as if it should hold some sort of book, and in front of that podium, where Orenda assumed a spectator would listen to the speech from the person reading from the book, strange markings were carved into the floor that she could make neither heads nor tails of. The door to the room locked from the inside, and Orenda could not imagine that anyone could have just opened the door and walked inside. This was the sort of room that one kept locked. This was the sort of room that things happened inside of. The magic in the air here flowed so freely that it took Orenda’s breath away, and she felt it empowering her with no input of her own, and had to make a conscious effort to stop it. There were tall, thin, arched windows of colored glass that opened outward, and she walked to one of them immediately, then stopped herself.
If she opened the window, it was likely that someone could listen in on their conversation, and Bubbider obviously had something to talk about- because she was locking the door behind them. So instead, Orenda sat her things on the bed and turned to face her.
“You follow the white rabbit,” Bubbider said when she was sure that she had Orenda’s attention.
“Yes!” Orenda said excitedly, “Were you expecting me?”
“No,” Bubbider frowned, “I have no idea who you are. But… you seem like a good child. And you seem frightened.”
“I am,” Orenda said, and it was the first time she had admitted it, and the emotions within her swirled and she felt that now she had began, she needed to get them out, “But I’m also angry, and frustrated, and sad, and… something else that I don’t understand! It’s all so horrible, and it’s all been so horrible for so long that I don’t know what to make of it anymore! Ellie and Charles are dead! And those soldiers they… they set the library on fire and… she… we- WE lost all of her hard work! And I probably could have stopped it- could have snuffed it out, but I didn’t, because I wasn’t thinking and… and all I could think was that they were evil, they were so evil, so I didn’t put it out, I made it worse, and now it’s all gone, because of me! Ellie would have wanted me to save it!”
Orenda had said all of this so quickly and without drawing breath that when she did breath again it caught in her chest, and she could not press back the magic that wanted to flow through her, and the air began to heat and crackle with the force of it before she realized what was happening and fought to contain it.
“They’re all dead,” Orenda went on, as Bubbideer watched her, “All of them! Not just Ellie and Charles, but the others, too. I don’t know what to do! Am I… do you think, at my core, that I am evil? Do you think that all a fire mage can do is destroy?”
“No,” Bubbider said quietly with comfort in her voice, “No, I don’t believe that at all. Sometimes, Orenda, healing can hurt. It hurts to cauterize a wound. But sometimes we must burn away the infection so that we can heal. It is alright to hurt. There were, at one time, great healers among the fire elves.” She paused, then continued, “And among the other fire mages, like the humans and the dwarves.”
Orenda nodded and backed up until she was sitting on the bed.
“I would say that some people are better at some sorts of magic than others,” Bubbider went on, “And some cannot feel magic at all, let alone use it. But I do not think that you can be evil. You’re too young. I’m not sure any child can be evil.”
“I disagree,” Orenda wiped her eyes and felt foolish, “I knew some evil children when I lived at the workhouse.”
“Maybe,” Bubbider said, and went on, “You’re talking about Eletha Venris? The historian?” Orenda nodded, so Bubbider continued, “I used to correspond with her housemaid, Susan. I suppose you know that she can read.”
“She can write, too,” Orenda said, “she wrote the address to this place for me. She was kind to me.”
“She was a kind woman,” Bubbider said.
“She is a kind woman,” Orenda corrected, “She isn’t dead.”
“Oh,” Bubbider said and seemed conflicted, but after a span of time, she decided to speak again, “I don’t like being the one to tell you this, but… Susan was found, in the industrial district. I think she was trying to make it to Huriyat AlIinsan, but she didn’t make it to the next safe house. The soldiers were looking for her. I don’t think she had much of a chance. The word has reached this place already that the soldiers captured her, but I know Susan. She will not go back.”
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“She had a vile of poison,” Orenda said.
“Did Charles brew it?” Bubbider asked, and Orenda nodded. “Then I am sure it acted quickly. He was a fine earth mage, from what I understand. He studied extensively at the library, and Ellie got him a wand, claiming it was for herself. He would not have wanted her to suffer.”
“Is it really so bad?” Orenda asked, “That one would rather die than go back?”
“I’ve never been to the capital,” Bubbider said, “But all the people I have met say that it is worse there than it is here. And… it isn’t exactly ideal here.”
Orenda nodded and tried to absorb this information.
“We’ll find a new safehouse, Orenda,” Bubbider promised her, “There are good people in the world. We’ll save others. Their lives mattered. What they were doing matters.”
“I met a boy on the road,” Orenda told her, “From Huriyat Allinsan. It’s a real place.”
“I know it to be a real place,” Bubbider said, “I know many people who have made it alive. I may know this boy. Was he pretty? Not in the sense that some men are attractive. Was he distractingly pretty?”
“I don’t know,” Orenda shrugged, “He seemed to think he was. His name was Ali.”
“Do you know where he was going?” Bubbider asked, “What he was trying to do?”
“He made me brand him,” Orenda said, “He was going to the mansion, on the hill. The home of lady Glenlen, I think?”
“Ali AlHadeen,” Bubbider nodded, “He is supposed to scry me and let me know he’s arrived safely.”
“But that would meant that you had met him before!” Orenda was alarmed at the prospect. Ali had never been here before.
“Not necessarily,” Bubbider shook her head, “Only that he knows my magical signature. Everyone’s is unique. It is easier to find if you’ve seen it, but… mages have ways of tracking things.”
“You’re a mage?” Orenda asked.
“Yes.”
“A fire mage?” Orenda asked with wide eyes.
“Yes.”
“How did you learn?” Orenda asked.
“My father was a mage, and his mother before him, and apparently so on until the beginning of time,” Bubbider explained, “Before his death, he taught me all he knew, and gave me a crystal that he claimed came from the staff of my… well I wouldn’t like to list all the ‘greats’, but it has been in my family since before the colonization. It is said to be more than two centuries old.”
“You deserve a proper staff,” Orenda huffed.
“No one deserves anything, Orenda,” Bubbider told her, “We make due with what we have, and we survive. Things are changing, have been changing for some time. Ali is not the first person to enter Lady Glenlen’s home- he will not be alone there. Her pretty little harem is not as loyal as she believes. Many earth elves do not know the difference between a slave and a pet. I don’t know how much longer it will be before she finds out, but they hide well. Things will change, and I think they will change soon. This place is so far from the capital, the empress does not have the reach that she thinks, nor the army. She does not think Huriyat Allinsan is a real place, so cannot think that it could produce soldiers.”
Orenda had not considered this possibility, but now that it had been explained to her, it seemed obvious. The empress was far away, across the sea, and she was trying to control the whole world. No one could control the whole world. It had been splintered before, into different peoples and cultures, and unless it benefited people more to stay in the empire than out of it, it would, eventually, splinter again. People would not be controlled forever; they would eventually rise up. She thought of what Ali had said- of how there were more humans than elves.
She thought of how she had never seen another fire elf.
“The texts say that the Emerald Knight destroyed my people in a day and a night,” Orenda said, “I don’t know how many of them there were, but… if that is true, I daresay he could destroy Huriyat Allinsan as easily.”
“The Emerald Knight is a boogieman,” Bubbider said, “Meant to frighten people into compliance. No one has ever actually seen him. I think it’s a legend that developed to explain the missing sword, and to try to make cultures who fell to long warfare seem weak enough to fall in a day. If there was an eruption, and if a mage did cause it, it was likely a powerful fire mage, or even more likely a group of them, in a last ditch effort to fight off the Urilian army. It was not one monster.”
“That makes sense,” Orenda nodded. “How did you know about the missing sword? A madman was screaming it in the streets.”
“People like the headmaster make the same mistakes as people like the Lady,” Bubbider explained, “They do not think humans are intelligent enough to listen. We fade into the background. You can’t do that. You certainly can’t now, now that they know you’re here, after what happened with the bathhouse.”
“No,” Orenda sighed, “I suppose I can’t hide anymore. I don’t know what will happen to me now.” She paused, staring ahead and seeing nothing, then asked, “Do you know who Gareth is?”
“No,” Bubbider answered, and Orenda knew she was sincere, “I’m sorry. Most of the Knights of Order do not know each other. It is said that the queen can invade the minds of those they capture. If any one of us is caught and forced before her, we want her to find out as little as possible.”
“How would she do that?” Orenda asked in shock. She had never heard of such magic.
“I’m not sure,” Bubbider shrugged, “I’m not even sure that she can. I only know that we were warned. Know as little as possible and never write anything down. If you’re human, never write anything at all.”
“I think Gareth is my father,” Orenda said, more to herself than to Bubbider, “I think I have a father.”
“You may, at that,” Bubbider said.
“And he abandoned me,” Orenda said. “I used to think… well, I never really thought it. But I used to dream that I was a princess. I liked to think that my parents were alive, that they were fallen royalty from the kingdom of the Fire Elves, and they would eventually come back for me. I suppose I never wanted to entertain the idea that I had been abandoned. But… to someone… to someone trying to hide, someone who was powerless- to a nobody… a baby would be a burden.”
“A child is always a miracle,” Bubbider argued, “A gift from Thesis. Even if it is a surprise. Anyone who does not appreciate that gift deserves to lose it.”
“You like children?” Orenda asked.
“I would like to be a mother,” Bubbider said, “When I have a world worthy of my child.”
Orenda thought of how Susan had spoken before she had left. Susan had said that Orenda was the only child she had ever had- who had lived. She had forced herself not to think about what that had meant, but now she wondered what had happened to Susan’s children. She forced herself to wonder what a ‘breeder’ was.
“Breakfast is at 6,” Bubbider said, “You may get a couple of hours of sleep before then. They may not wake you. I would get all the rest you can. Don’t worry, Orenda, we’ll speak again.”