She headed back to her room, keeping the dress above the floor to keep from staining it. She ducked into the greenhouse to grab some Deepkelp and Parchmentleaf to use as bandages, before heading back to her room.
She changed back into the tunic and pants, quickly cleaning and wrapping up the minor injury as she sat on the edge of her bed. The bleeding stopped quickly, the wound scabbing over. Though, it wouldn’t heal past that.
She scowled at he bandages. He had been having fun. How had this nothing ruined it? It wasn’t as if he’done it intentionally.
She knew how. Messing up was not tolerated in his mind. His masters taught him that lesson time and time again. She was sure this recent incident wasn’t the first time. Not that they cared about a human in the slightest, but if he had injured one of theirs, his punishment would have been much worse than a shredded face.
She grabbed her list of chores, looking it over once again. He asked her to take the day off, but she didn’t see much point. Putting off the chores wasn’t going to make them go away and she would rather have something to do.
She’d spent the last 50 or so years working; When things need done, they need done.
She looked at the first item on the list, Cull the fish in the pond. At least she could go swimming. If he questioned her, she was just taking a nice swim.
She tied the tunic tightly around her waist so it wouldn’t flow around her while in the water and headed to the garden. She grabbed some Harpyclaw thorns and tied them to stray sticks with ribbonwood, before heading to the beast room with her makeshift spears. They were crude but the thorns were sharp enough that it would be better than her trying this with her bare hands.
She headed straight to the pond, wading in. The water was cool, bordering on cold. It made her shiver. At about knee depth she kept her eyes peeled for the small fish.
It took most of the day to cull the small fish. Every time she speared one, she took her shorter spears and skewered them into the shallow water, filling up four skewers before she ran out of small fish. The cold water would keep them fresh until she could salt and dry them. There was no reason to waste them.
Once the shallow water was clear, she headed deeper. The cold sapped her energy much faster at this depth, but she persevered. She worked until the evening, until she couldn’t stand the cold anymore. She pulled herself out of the water, dripping and shivering.
She grabbed her fish and headed to the kitchen. She started up a fire on the stove which she used to warm her hands for a moment before searching for salt. After searching the kitchen, she found there was none anywhere, not even vessels that would hold it for guests.
With a lack of salt, she decided to smoke the fish instead.
She gutted the fish with an extra thorn and then the fish up above the stove, the excess smoke venting out the duct leading to the maze outside. She could almost smell the deathly burnt smell of the roses outside over her cooking fish.
She sat in front of the stove, warming herself as her clothes began to dry out. Taking out the dried fish, she cleared a spot for it on the counter. She’d tackle deep cleaning this kitchen tomorrow after she finished culling the fish in the deeper water.
She returned to room, the cold water having sapped her energy. She quickly changed out of the still slightly damp tunic and pants and into her nightgown.
Over the next few days, she spear fished slowly, removing the fish from the pond. When she got too cold, she’d head to the kitchen to clean and smoke the fish. As they smoked she’d clean the kitchen. The spells she was taught to help her clean didn’t help much against the vast disastrous mess that was the kitchen but they did help with small things such as individual dishes and small sections of counter.
However she often got too tired to cast the spell before they made much of an impact.
She didn’t know how the kitchen got so bad from someone who didn’t cook. But after his attempt at a dinner party, it had gotten worse from when she’d first seen it.
Over those few days, she didn’t see Zaramir. The only sign he was still around was the occasional sound of something being pulled across, or dropped on, the floor above her. She knew he couldn’t use spells, so he was probably working on alchemy.
By the 4th day, she was done with the kitchen and pond. Compared to those two tasks, the rest of her work should prove to be much faster. She started with her other chores and was able to sweep the floors and water the garden easily with the remainder of her day.
On the morning of the 5th day, she woke up to a low rumbling above her that crescendoed dramatically before ending in a loud bang and crackle. Those weren’t sounds she’d heard in days.
Zaramir’s curse is broken. She smiled and slid out from under the covers, quickly changing into her work outfit. If his curse was broken, they could get back to lessons.
She sat at the foot of her bed, expecting him to appear as he’d done the first day he’d taught her. When ten minutes had passed, she headed out to the atrium. Perhaps he’d meet her there. When she reached the atrium, it was still and quiet.
She chastised herself silently for thinking the first thing he’d do would be to think of their lessons. She headed back to her room, looking over her chores list. He’d teach her when he had the time. He was busy and he had to be behind in his work from those few days.
She looked over her list, re-busying herself with her actual job. Her next task sent her back to the garden to harvest various plants. The list was specific and extensive, like her mother’s market lists.
Growing up they lived a good while away from the nearest real kingdom. Their village had meat and milk, perhaps a few varieties of simple vegetables from the neighbors' home gardens; but for spices or fruit, they’d have to take the horse. It was a quarter day’s ride to the kingdom with the best selection. Her mother would often go alone, to make the trip faster, but a few times she would take Corabelle and her sister. The Kingdom was a coastal town known as Pearl’s Keep.
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While their main exports were shellfish, they were the biggest consumer, and supplier to the people of imports. They acquired produce and other goods from every other kingdom in their region and even sent merchant ships to the far reaches of the globe.
Corabelle loved the bustling streets filled with people in their fancy clothes and the many different smells of seared fruits and spiced shellfish. One time her mother had even gotten her a Pearlfish for her birthday, letting her learn how to crack it open. Inside was a small shimmering blue teardrop, according to the man it was a rare one and she was very lucky.
On the way home, though, a massive rainstorm hit them, and the pearl was lost. They tried to backtrack but the mud made it impossible for them to find again. The next year her mom got her a replacement, but the new one ended up being a pinkish ivory sphere, not nearly as rare. Nevertheless she loved it. She had left it with her sister so she wouldn’t lose it when she went on the journey that got her trapped here.
Her reminiscence was over shadowed by the reality of her situation. Her sister probably thought she was dead. Her sister could very well be dead herself after all this time. She wondered if anyone in the family still had that pearl. She hoped it would be passed down to her sister's children if she had any or sold if necessary.
Despite the dark nature of her reverie, she didn’t let it sour her mood as she searched the greenhouse for the ingredients, grabbing the woven basket left for her just inside the door.
From her mother’s shopping, she could tell most of these were edible but certainly weren’t for one single recipe; Though she doubted he intended to use them to cook.
She looked at the ingredients a bit closer, recalling the flavor of the ones she recognized. One of the roots she pulled she realized she’d tasted more recently than her childhood. Though she hardly remembered it.
There was a fleeting moment where she recalled the burning medicinal syrupyness of a healing potion when she’d shattered her hand. She didn’t realize she’d even been conscious, but she remembered that much.
She broke off a tendril and sampled it. Yes, this was definitely the same. What had her mother used it for? Jam, right? Jam for special occasions. That’s right. Rainy days when her sister and her caught cold. Though there was one glaring difference; her mother’s jam didn’t cure anything. It made them feel better, but not through any magical means. Just because it was their mom that made it. That and, of course, all the sugar.
She smiled as she remembered those cold days. Being sick was never fun, but the rain pattering on the roof and her mother’s jam on the baker’s fresh warm bread almost made it worth it. She gathered the remaining ingredients, sampling the rest of the ones she recognized, recalling her mothers recipes. She tucked a handful of Dust Sage in her pocket, she was confident she could recreate her mother’s cornbread and sage butter with ingredients around her. She’d have to wait til after work though.
She finished grabbing the ingredients and made her way to Zaramir’s lab.
Upon reaching the stairs, she heard his voice around her, “Oh, Good! I was about to need those ingredients. Bring them up!”
She ascended the stairs, knocking on the door.
“One moment!” He called. From inside she could hear the sharp crackling of flame. Smoke smelling of firewood bellowed from under the door. There was the sound of things crashing into walls, the floor vibrating as though heavy feet were running across it. Despite all that, Zaramir’s voice had seemed unconcerned.
She waited patiently outside the door for less than a minute before the sounds of chaos quieted significantly, though not all together.
The door cracked open slightly and Zaramir’s head popped out, the door still remaining mostly closed, keeping her from getting a view of the source of the chaos, “Thank you, Miss Cora.” As he grabbed the basket from here there was the sound of a heavy snap, like a reed breaking but as intense as a bolt of lightning.
Zaramir’s calm face suddenly dropped, and he slammed the door without another word.
The smell of flame intensified, the crackling escalating to louder than it had been even before the sudden silencing.
Not a second later the door ripped open with a loud crash as it slammed into the wall.
In front of her, taking up most of the opening was a massive flame, hovering above the floor. It took the vague shape of a woman. Where her legs would be tapered into a thin wisp which ended at a red, glowing metal ring. Her fingertips ended in flaming talons, but she froze upon seeing Corabelle.
A thin airy voice resounded around her head, the words echoing, “Human! Human girl!” Though her face was featureless outside of two white hot eyes, where her cheeks would be, raised almost as though she was smiling. “Human master?” The heat from the flame woman was more intense than a bonfire, warming her face to an uncomfortably high temperature.
Corabelle took a few steps back toward the stairs, so she could keep her eyes open against the broiling flame, “No. I’m sorry. I’m not your master.”
Before the flame woman was able to project another word, she let out an enraged screech as her arms were pinned to her side and she began to fold in on herself until she disappeared into the ring which clattered to the ground. The glowing rapidly snuffed out until the ring became a dull tarnished brass. The door slammed shut, locking the ring and Zaramir back into the room.
After that, the small atrium stilled to complete silence. Corabelle was left, skin cooling, at the top of the stairs.
She’d never seen a cursed item in person before, but she guessed that’s what she’d just met. Or maybe it was a runebound elemental? One thing was for certain, it desired a human master, which made her think it was made by a human mage. Her guess was that it refused to be controlled by a Faedemon.
It probably didn’t even recognize him as a possible master, so it was left untethered once released. She could only imagine the destruction an unbound elemental could cause to the lab.
Before she had time to give it much thought, Zaramir slipped out of the lab, closing the door quickly behind him. She realized she had been so preoccupied by the fire woman that she hadn’t even thought to actually see what was in his illusive lab.
“Thank you for distracting her. I was trying to get her back in that ring all morning. Between her and the earth elemental, I’m lucky they didn’t break out. Tracking down rogue elementals would have taken more time than I would have liked.” He laughed. “Well, lesson learned I suppose. Human bound elementals are not going to work.”
He leaned against the door, his chest rising and falling as though he was catching his breath. “Here.” He flipped something shiny across the room and Corabelle snatched it from the air instinctively.
Opening her palm it was a freshly shined brass ring with a small red stone inlay in it. Runic writing circling the inside. It was warm. This was the ring the elemental was bound to.
Startled, she nearly dropped it, “Why are you giving me this?”
“I have no use for it.” He shrugged. “And it’s perfectly harmless to you without the incantation. Just don’t happen to read the script out loud and it'll remain trapped. But if you don’t want it, I can sell it off next time I go to the market. It’s so old that I'm sure most mages can’t even read the script, so it’s not worth much. But on its own it’s quite nice, or at least I thought so.”
She ran her finger over the unnaturally warm metal and the stone flickered slightly, “It’s beautiful. Are you sure you want to give it to me?”
“Clearly it’s more trouble than it’s worth.” He stood up straight with a humorous smile. “It’s yours now.”
She chuckled, sliding it over her first finger. She could hardly feel it; the metal was the same temperature as her skin, “Thank you.”
“It’s nothing,” he replied with a smile. “But I must get back to work. The Earth elemental is a bit easier to tame without her riling him up. I will be seeing you for lessons soon, Miss Cora. I believe I'll have the time tomorrow for at least a few quick spells.”
Her face lit up, “I can’t wait!”
He slipped back into his lab and she headed back to her chores with renewed vigor.