Aurelie was getting irritated by the sound of her own breathing. It was too silent in the house. From time to time, Peter's footsteps made the floor creak above her but he had yet to come downstairs. Aurelie began to think that Alysia's outburst had taken him back to avoiding her again. With Kirin ill and Nick lovesick, as sad as it may have been, the only person Aurelie had to talk to was Peter.
She also wanted to ask him to lend her some coins to find a witch consult. Currency, her aunt and uncle taught her, was a delicate matter. One should not find oneself in a situation that warrants asking, but in such a case that one does, find the right moment or get them drunk. They were joking about the latter part, of course, but Kirin had been out of it for so long that she would quite happily get Peter drunk to help him.
The herbs Sasha used ought to have been known around the witches but they wouldn't hand her any for free. Nick had promised her to look for someone to help Peter and then those damn wizards caught her at the festival and nothing came of it. Now that he made his intentions clear, Aurelie wasn't sure whether asking him to help Kirin would go down well.
Standing up from the couch, she walked over to the bookshelf and looked for something to read. The bindings were all similar, some of the leather differed in color, but other than that only the thickness changed. Aurelie picked the thinnest one of the lot and turned it around to see the title. In gold letters, Lore: Alysia's Rise to Power, was carved out on the front. Aurelie sighed and pushed the other books to the side to slip the one she held between them.
By now, it felt as if Alysia had been part of her. She could not take a step within that house without running into some token that reminded her of the damn woman. Aurelie lowered her knees to the ground and sat down to look through the lowest shelf in hope that the books were arranged according to the rise in Peter's madness.
A book bound in red velvet was pushed to the very back of the shelf, almost hidden from sight entirely. Alysia's Return was sewn in with black thread on the front. Aurelie dropped her head back, and let out a soft growl.
She sighed loudly. Something made a sound behind her and she jumped. It was a soft thump and came from Kirin's direction. She froze, her eyes locked on Kirin. Nothing happened. For reasons beyond understanding, she crept up to the couch on her toes, making as little sound as possible as if hearing her would somehow discourage him from moving.
Just then, Peter came down the stairs started to rummage around in the kitchen. No movement came from Kirin but the possibility of it gave Aurelie some courage to ask Peter for a loan.
She watched Kirin for a little bit longer, holding onto hope she knew was false and then went to the kitchen.
Peter was bent over one of the counters. A stale odor rose in the kitchen with his arrival.
"Morning," she said as he passed her. His smell caught in her throat. She paused mid-breath and exhaled the breath that held the rich sweaty reek that came from him. "Are you alright?"
He turned, looking a little bewildered and like he had just noticed her there, despite having just bumped shoulders on his way past her. The top button of his shirt was missing. There was a large oily stain on his stomach and his pants had brown stains on the knees. Strange as Peter was, the man looked after his hygiene. Something was terribly wrong and it didn't take her long to guess that it had to do with that bloody women and what she did to the dining table.
"Not really," he said in a voice so defeated that it made Aurelie's spine go cold with fright.
"Are you still thinking about Alysia?" she asked, knowing that the answer was an obvious yes. What else was she supposed to say though?
She was worried about him but more worried about Kirin to feel bad about the fact that her disappointment outweighed the concern. She couldn't ask the man for a loan now. Not with him in that state.
"It's just," he paused, looked at her in the childlike manner of innocence that only very elderly people and toddlers possessed, "she's never done that before."
"Zap you with a lightning bolt? Well, I sure hope not." Aurelie attempted to make light of the matter but he was having none of it.
He shook his head. "No, she's never shown her existence to me before, not like this. Sometimes a painting would be knocked over and I'd think she did it, sometimes a door would slam. Normal things, you know?"
"Oh." The thought made her uncomfortable. After it happened, her only point of relief was the fact that Peter had experienced her temper for years and had come out alive. If she had known that Alysia's temper only started to show a couple of weeks after their arrival, she would have probably read one or two of those damn books he kept in his shelf and hope that she found a chapter or two on how not to get killed by a raging god witch.
"Never?"
He shook his head. "Not even when I remarried."
"Has she . . . done anything since?"
He shook his head and looked quite sheepish suddenly. It looked like he wanted to say something but didn't know how to put it.
"What is it, Peter?"
"That boy, on the coach, who is he?"
Aurelie went cold. "That's Kirin. Your grandson." She frowned, trying to determine whether the name made any sense to him. It didn't. "Do you know who I am?"
He opened his mouth and then closed it. His eyes rolled around in memory and then stopped on her. "I'm feeling a little tired," he said. "I think I better sleep before the kids arrive."
She was about to ask who they were expecting and then thought better of it. "Yes, perhaps. Peter," she stopped him as he got onto the stairs, "perhaps a bath before the nap?"
He turned bright red and nodded. "Yes, of course, I was going to do that anyway."
"Alright."
"Alright."
She waited for him to get up the stairs and then bent over the counter and opened her mouth to push out a silent scream. Now that she thought about it, Kirin had laid in the same position for about two days which meant that Peter hadn't looked after him for at least that long. Things couldn't remain this way anymore. Action had to be taken.
Aurelie left the house and headed toward the square. That was the only place she had been to and was sure that there had to be a medicine shop there somewhere. She didn't have money but she could work.
The streets had largely been empty. Some houses still had their festival decorations up but most of it had been cleared up. The leaves on the trees were slowly turning orange and the breeze grew colder daily.
The square was closer than she remembered it being. She passed two narrow streets and took a right into the third and the large opening was before her. The square had been busier than the streets. People sat chatting at tables. There was a class of children lined up behind their teacher and an ice cream shop. Flowers bloomed in large pots that were scattered among the many tables around the square. All the shop doors were open, unlike the last time that Aurelie had been there.
Aurelie looked for a sign of a herb or a medical measuring vial on the shop doors and caught the one on a corner shop. It looked rather fancy from the outside. The half glass, half wooden door was closed when she came up. Aurelie opened the door and took a step back rather than forward. A man had blocked her passage. He was a wearing a white uniform and held his hands behind his back.
"Good day," he said.
"Hello, I'm looking for some adviceâ"
"We don't give advice." He looked her up and down with his nose raised twice as high as it ought to have been.
Aurelie felt her ears grow hot with embarrassment. The dismissal was mortifying.
The shop had been covered in wood from roof to ceiling and not cheap wood either. It was so polished that Aurelie could almost see her reflection in one of the counters. There were several doors on the right wall and a comfortable seating area in front of a large counter.
"What do you do then?" she asked, assessing the situation for what it was; a judgement about her financial situation on his part. Which, at that very moment was quite accurate, but the last time she checked, wood didn't take kindly to fire.
"We're a private medical facility."
"So you do give advice."
"With all due respectâ"
"Which is how much exactly?"
He cocked his head to the side and raised a thin black brow at her response. "We do not serve women," he said between clenched teeth.
"That suits me just fine; the person I need advice for is a man."
He looked behind him nervously. The two of them had gathered some attention. Every man in the waiting area had their head turned toward them.
"That's not the way it works," his voice had grown sharper.
"Do you want me to carry him here on my back to prove it?" she asked, raising her voice and causing as much of a scene as she possibly could. Eventually, someone more important would come out and try to scare her away and she was hoping that this person would have the answers she was looking for.
"Can you afford it?"
"I don't know," she lied, "We haven't . . ."
"I'll tell you right now that you can't."
"I can't afford advice?"
"Not from here."
A man with grey hair came out of one of the rooms and watched them for a second. He had a neatly trimmed beard that just about covered his chin and a mustache that sprang out past his cheeks and a pair of spectacles hanging around his neck.
"Vimus, what is going on here?"
"She won't leave, master. I've told her several times that we do not serve women, never mind women like her."
"Would you care to explain what you mean by that, Vimus?" Aurelie shot him an acidic glare.
"It's alright, lad," the man walked up to Vimus and tapped his shoulder, "sometimes you have to put things in simpler terms for this lot. We don't serve you here. Leave."
Aurelie felt heat flow into her fingertips. "I wouldn'tâ"
He slammed the door shut. After a moment, the shock had passed and Aurelie exhaled a breath that had been keeping her tears back. How was she ever to help Kirin? She felt worthless and alone.
The door opened again and the pompous old man came out, looking at something behind her. "Officer Belcott, this wench won't leave, she's costing me business."
Aurelie turned around and faced five officers.
A dark-haired one with a thick rectangular jaw stood at the front of a sort of triangle that they had formed. He came to stand beside her and smiled.
"I have orders to grant the lady whatever she wishes," he said.
The man turned the boldest shade of red that she had seen on a man and widened his eyes to the point of them looking like they were about to pop out of their sockets.
"You know those don't apply to me, boy."
"I'm afraid they apply to everyone when it concerns the young lady."
Aurelie hadn't taken her eyes off the old man since the officer spoke to him and was itching for the moment he finally looked at her and saw just how smug her smile had been. It stretched from ear to ear. Even her head bobbed in delight from time to time.
"This is ridiculous."
"I don't want to have to force your hand, Master Raves," he said. The officers came to stand close behind him and gave off an aura of warning.
"Then don't." Without looking at her direction, Raves directed his question toward her, "What is it you need?"
"I need a tonic that'll wake someone up. A good one, he's been asleep for a while."
"Wake them up from what?"
"I can't say."
His head snapped in her direction and then toward the officers. "How am I supposed to help her if she won't even give me the information?"
"How long has he been sleeping?"
"A few weeks."
The man's eyes widened. "Vimus, put ten drops of crunisian oil into a vial for her."
"Ten?"
Raven turned around and gave him, Aurelie assumed, a very unimpressed looked.
"I'm getting back to my patient. I don't want to see any of you in front of my practice again. Even if your brain is exposed and you're bleeding out," he said when he turned back.
Vimus came out with the vial a couple of seconds after Raves disappeared into one of the rooms. Aurelie took the substance carefully and before she could thank Vimus, he had slammed the door shut and she heard the click of a lock.
"Thank you," she said to the officer.
"Anything you need, lady Aurelie, you just walk up to anyone in a uniform and tell them what it is."
"Thank you," she said again, feeling awkward. She held the vial up and pointed it in the direction of Peter's house. "I better get this home."
The officers bowed and said their farewells, remaining in place. She left them and hurried home, carefully observing the clothing of the people around her to see how many officers roamed the streets. There were plenty. If she were to guess, one out of every four people on the street was one. It made her feel more than uncomfortable. By the time she got home, she felt so exposed to the outside world, that she had the need to wash it off herself.
"Cally, dear, where the hell have you been?" Peter asked. "The damn fool's finally awake and the so-called prince hasn't even been in here to see him."
Aurelie's breath caught in her throat. Kirin was awake and sat up on the couch beside Peter. She ran over to him and hugged him tightly, resting her head on his shoulder. Her heart ached with happiness. She looked up at him, as tears gathered in her eyes, and felt the soft caress of his lips on hers. The kiss started off slow and then Kirin's hand found the back of her neck and she felt his fingers tighten on her hair. Her lips parted for his tongue.
"What the bloody hell are you doing?" Peter asked, sounding so shocked that his voice began to squeak at the end of his sentence.
Kirin pulled away just enough to be able to speak and laughed. "I think he thinks you're my grandmother."