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“Mog?” Jupiter sat down on her bed where she was sitting reading. She dropped her book because he was looking at her like he was looking for something. “You know you can come to me with anything, don’t you?” His voice was a lot softer than usual. He was worried .
Her palms turned sweaty and she clenched her jaw as she tried not to panic. Her lessons with Squall had been going on for a while but recently the secret had been weighing on her - even from a mostly selfish standpoint that she wanted people to know how good she was now. But how could she do that? All her lessons were so limited and no matter how well preserved the Ghostly Hours were, she had progressed far further with Squall than she could’ve ever with them, learning in leaps and bounds and keeping it a secret was beginning to eat her up.
“Yeah, I know that.” She narrowed her eyes at him, attempting to act confused - even though that was pretty useless since he was a Witness. “Why?”
Her guardian was normally all smiles and free laughter but now his jaw was clenched tight and he looked actually quite upset. “I’ve noticed, there’s a lot of purple around you - like you’re keeping a secret.” His eyes never left hers, almost trapping her there.
So it was about the apprenticeship. Of course, what else would cause him so much worry.
Morrigan was split on how to do this. She could lie, make him more worried, desperate for an answer, or she could tell the truth. That she was training under Ezra Squall , the literally evil murderer of so many people, including all the other Wundersmiths and tried to take over Nevermoor and The Free State innumerable times. But she was. That was the truth. And if anyone deserved the truth from her, it was Jupiter.
She gulped, hoping for a snatch of courage somewhere in vain. “I’ve been training with the Wundersmith.”
He furrowed his eyebrows for a second, quick enough for someone to blink and completely miss it.
And then his expression cleared. “You’re joking, right?” He asked, his voice wavering like Dame Chanda at one of her performances, trying for a weak laugh.
Instead of answering, she bit her lip, trying not to cry and shook her head. “I’m sorry,” she breathed out.
“You’re… the Wundersmith. You’re working with the Wundersmith. Why?” Was it her imagination or were his wrinkles deeper than they’d been before? And his eyes were more tired and sadder too.
“He can teach me so much.” Her eyes were pooling with tears and her nose was now running but if she had a chance to get her point across, it would be now. “The Ghostly Hours, they’re great, I’m so grateful for them. But they’re limited. I can’t ask questions or get help for myself and sometimes they’re only half preserved, which, you can imagine, really makes my lessons difficult. And originally I only made the deal to save everyone from the Hollowpox.”
His eyes widened. “The healing. That wasn’t just you.”
“I got rid of the virus, he helped with that like I told you, to stop President Wintersea coming into Nevermoor, but Squall cured them under the condition that I become his apprentice.”
She couldn’t regret that. Seeing Sofia again was worth it. Not having to see a wunimal victim count every day was worth it. C&D going back to other issues was worth it. So was barely having to hear whatever stupid thing Laurent St. James had said, in newspapers or on the radio, or on one memorable occasion right outside the Deucalion before Fen dragged him off by the scruff of his ill-fitted but expensive looking jacket.
Curing the hollowpox had been a good thing, and technically Squall hadn’t actually made her become her apprentice until afterwards. She’d only signed the contract after he’d cured them all, and she’d seen Sofia wake up too.
Maybe she’d agreed for honour’s sake but Squall had no honour so she kept no covenant with him. But the power… when she’d opened that window and let Squall through - just to heal the wunimals - that universe inside her, that expanding power… she’d wanted it so badly, how could she not become his apprentice?
It hurt that she was so far behind compared to any other wundersmith since the Society began but she couldn’t do much about that now. What she could do was learn as much as she possibly could, and improve as quickly as possible so she could close that gap.
Squall was over a hundred years old. Wunder was a great preserver, as Sofia liked to put it. Hawthorne liked to put it as ‘wundersmiths got old as balls’. Morrigan knew which one was better to use in a hypothetical essay and unfortunately, Hawthorne’s didn’t quite cut it.
Jupiter nodded, like he was beginning to understand. But he still didn’t like it. “But it’s Squall. He murdered and manipulated so many people. How can you trust him?” He ran a hand through his hair, tugging it out of place. Morrigan was slightly afraid he would pull it out by the roots.
“I don’t. I need the lessons though. If I’m ever to become a proper Wundersmith, I have no choice.”
His voice was small but she heard it like it was blasted through a thousand trumpets, “Is it really worth it then, to become a ‘proper’ Wundersmith? To work with Squall, to learn from him?”
She’d considered it before. And she knew her answer. She knew how she felt about that universe, and how she wanted - needed - that power, needed to grow into it and learn how to use it. “Yes, it is.”
Jupiter nodded slowly, taking in what she’d said. She knew he was assessing the things he saw around her, seeing it laid bare in a way only a Witness could. “Well then,” he said, and his voice was like a stone, “We need to talk.”