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“Morrigan,” one of the kids threw a rock at her. She ignored it and carried on with what she was carrying, although it made her feel like a bit of a glorified packmule. “Come on!”
“You’re pathetic, do something,” another one goaded. Morrigan resigned herself to her fate before she heard someone come out behind her.
“What’s all this?” She could have kissed the ground in gratitude. Cadence was standing there.
“What’s it to you?”
“Well, given that I’m the Wundersmith’s bodyguard, and this is the Wundersmith’s servant… quite a bit actually. Run along.”
The boy crossed her arms, “This is none of your business.”
Cadence rolled her eyes, “Actually it is.” Her voice changed, becoming deeper and more melodic, “Apologise to Morrigan and leave .”
They did, more robot-like than any human Morrigan had ever seen, turning tail and running even though Cadence hadn’t specified that in her orders. Maybe it was to do with the power she’d put into it.
“I don’t know why you don’t protect yourself. I’ve read your file, you’re a firebreather.” Morrigan heard what was unsaid: I don’t want to have to protect you all the time. It stung a little, but she could understand it. It wasn’t fair, but none of this was.
“I don’t want to hurt them,” she said. Cadence helped her pick up the things the other kids had dislodged when they’d been harassing her. “I don’t want to hurt people, you know I’m not like that.”
“I know,” said Cadence, but she was frowning. “All the same though. Sometimes people need to be taught a lesson. You should teach it sometimes.” She walked back up to the mansion with Morrigan, holding some stuff to make her load easier. “I still think it would be good though. You don’t have to burn them or anything, just… scare them off.”
She sighed, “I also don’t want to frighten people.”
Cadence just kicked a bit of dirt into dust with one flick of her boot, “Of course you don’t.”
They reached the house, and she almost dropped her parcels because she was so anxious to not be carrying it anymore, “How can you lift so much?” She flexed out her shoulders in a stretch and Morrigan tried not to stare.
She just shrugged, looking at the ground like it was suddenly fascinating, “Dunno. Just strong, I guess.”
“You guess?” She checked hurriedly to her side, “I need to go, Brutilus will have noticed I’ve gone by now.”
“Don’t worry, Pip can’t get me from here.” She said it lightheartedly, but she knew she would if she could. But she was safe here, in the Wundersmith’s mansion. And as long as she kept doing her job, and kept her head down, she’d have a place here.
For a time, anyway. Until Noelle went away to travel and solve problems and whatever else the Wundersmith did, and left everyone she didn’t need back here in Jackalfax. Leave her by herself, without Cadence and far too close to Pip and his gang without any kind of protection. But she’d need to master the other Wundrous Arts first at least. And she’d only managed one so far, to the despair of her teachers.
That was what she was complaining about when Morrigan came through the door, to tidy her things for her, “I don’t know how fire breathing is so natural for you, Morrigan, it’s so hard.”
“Breathing fire isn’t strictly the same as Inferno, Noelle.” She picked up another pair of shoes from the floor and did her best to contain her eye roll. She knew she was her personal servant, but the amount of picking up after the Wundersmith she had to do was ridiculous. The Wundrous Divinites, of course, had chosen her as their representative, and gifted her with the ability to control Wunder, but couldn’t she have also gotten the ability to practise basic tidiness in her own rooms? Apparently not, but then again, that kept Morrigan employed so maybe she should be glad that Noelle was a complete slob.
“Still,” she grumbled, “If I could just do it. Nicholas is getting quite tired of me now. He keeps trying to get me to summon wunder but I don’t think he understands that “shows itself to summoner and smith” is a complete and utter metaphor. He can’t see it obviously, but he’s not a wundersmith.”
Morrigan made half-interested noises while Noelle went on her bi-weekly rant about how hard being the Wundersmith really was, and how difficult it was to master so-and-so skill. She had it down to a set arc now, in perfect order. Morrigan knew exactly when she’d hit each beat, and when she’d either lose her temper with Morrigan, or if she’d just let her go.
Today she was lucky. She was allowed to leave and go help in the kitchens. Other days weren’t so good though.
Jupiter looked uncomfortable when she asked him what she had done in the fight, “It seems… Baz thinks you’ve… Baz thinks we may have been wrong about the identity of the Wundersmith. Since you seem to have used inferno and tempus both against Wintersea.”
“What do you mean?”
He seemingly just decided to come out with it, “He thinks you may be the Wuntersmith, not Noelle.”
She sat down, feeling slightly jealous that this pillow was far more comfortable than the one in her shared room, “Oh.”
He ran a hand through his beard, “It may not be the case. It’s hard to know, given that everything was happening so fast, what we do know is you dealt an immense amount of power against Maud Lowry, more than anyone had thought you capable of.”
Including me , she thought. They’d been ambushed. She hadn’t been coming to sign a treaty after all, and she’d tricked them, murdered Noelle’s Weaving master in the process, and she’d become separated from the group in the middle of it, stuck with Lowry on the edge of an iceberg. And she’d done… something. She had memories of time changing shape and everything getting slow, and then everything burning, and that familiar taste of ash at the back of her throat whenever she lost control.
Apparently someone had come and saved her though when she’d passed out, and she’d woken back up in the mansion where everyone had questions for her. Just what she wanted after being unconscious for days on end. Lucky her. She was going to have to explain what had happened when she didn’t even understand it herself.
At the very least… Noelle was going to be so angry about this.
“I’m the Wundersmith,” she said. Octavia had cleared the territory now, but she was glad Cadence was driving. She didn’t think she had it in her at the minute. She kept looking at her hands where the golden threads of wunder wove between her fingers. Waiting for her . “I’m the Wundersmith.”
Cadence finally looked over at her from her pilot’s chair, the one she’d seen Jupiter in so many times, on their way to the treaty, and when he left the mansion, and returned from his trips. Jupiter- When she’d last seen him- When she’d last seen what was left of him, that was- he’d been- he wasn’t Jupiter anymore. Just a head. And a body, rolled somewhere else, after what Baz had done to him. “Yes, it seems like you are.”
“And you’re helping me escape.”
“I wasn’t going to stay there was I? Not with Baz, not after what he’d-” she cut herself off with a cough, and Morrigan had to blink very hard for a few minutes to stop herself from crying again. She had to conserve her energy here.
“What about your gran?” Cadence’s grandmother was the terrifying head of security at the mansion, but if she had left, then Baz had her. He had everyone there. He controlled all of it.
Cadence visibly gulped, and took some time after that to answer, “My gran will be fine. She can take care of herself. My duty is to you, now.”
“Your duty was to Noelle.” The last she’d seen of Noelle was Squall’s - the spirit Baz had summoned, the ghost of some past Wundersmith - monsters dragging her out of the unnamed realm and down to where the pale things bit. She felt bad about all the mean thoughts she’d had about her over the years, but it was a yowling cat next to the monster of her grief.
“My duty is to the Wundersmith, whoever that may be. Apparently that’s you, ergo,” she made a gesture between them both.
“Noelle had years of training and she couldn’t get it. How can I possibly-”
“Noelle wasn’t the Wundersmith,” there was a note of duh, moron in Cadence’s voice that Morrigan heard for all it wasn’t said. “ You are.”
She felt a little stupid, “Right. Course. But- I still don’t know what I’m doing.”
“You know inferno,” she was quiet for a minute while she navigated Octavia through a particularly horrible looking ravine. “Let’s start from there.”
“And Nocturne.” Squall had demonstrated while he’d held them both, and Baz had watched. If she hadn’t been able to summon it there, she knew she would have been right down there where Noelle had been taken, and Baz would have just let it happen.
“So you know two. Even better.”
They emerged at a shoreline, a long crest of white sand, stretching for as far as the eye could see. She could see at the north, where she’d been heading for, where the last memories lay of her parents, and the old vulture shape of Ornella Crow. Yvalstad. She pointed at it, “That way.”
“Nice morning, isn’t it?” Heloise stood over them, blocking out the sun. Morrigan blinked, and rolled away from Cadence. “Was a nice night too. Nice for nice moments of a very nice friendship.”
“Piss off, Heloise,” but Cadence wasn’t mesmerising her so she stayed there. At least she was a good sun blocker. She kicked off the blanket.
“Shan’t. You fought well though, Blackburn.”
She hauled herself up onto her elbows beside Morrigan, “Thanks.”
“I don’t think the ring has seen your like in a while. I mean, the way you snapped Nan’s femur? She’ll be lucky to work again in the next six months. I’d say hopefully she has the funds to last herself, but honestly she’s such a pain in my arse, I hope she doesn’t. So?”
Morrigan frowned, “So what?” Heloise didn’t respond, just made movements with her eyebrows which were infuriating. She knew exactly what she was asking about, but it didn’t seem like she needed anything confirmed, she was just doing this to be a dick.
“Whatever,” she shrugged casually, twirling a strand of ugly green hair around her finger, “you guys looked like you had fun though.”
She spluttered, “We- it was just kissing!” She knew she’d fallen for the trap before she’d even finished speaking.
Cadence groaned, “Morrigan , shut up!”
Heloise laughed, “You need more training before you go under any interrogation, Wundersmith. Congratulations though.”
She just sank her head into her hands until she couldn’t see anything, not even bits of light. “Please go away.”
“I’ll leave you both alone.” Was it possible to hear a smirk?
“Shut up. Not like that.” Cadence coughed, and she amended, “A little like that.”
“I take it back, you two are slightly disgusting.”
She heard her walk away before she looked up again, and then over at Cadence, rubbing her eyes. “What do you know about avoiding being questioned?”
“Don’t do any of that to start with. Get up, you need to practise your stances.”
“Please go easy on me. I just woke up.”
“When have I ever done that?”
She hauled herself to her feet, and started positioning them. “Never, so far.”
“So am I likely to do it now?” She folded her arms, staring her down until she settled into a horse stance.
“No.”
“There you go then.”