Lord and Servant: (Book I of the Elementals Series)

by Marisol Logan

  Smells of sweets and roasting meat assaulted her as she approached the colorful tents. One tent featured a Wind Mager who'd send a message to anywhere in the world, and another held a Fire Mager playing 'Catch the Lie'—if you could stump him, you'd win a prize of a giant sunflower, a stuffed toy horse, or a huge stick of candy. Then she saw the sign pointing to the 'Future Uncovering Earth Mager'. Veria recalled her list, and decided to start at the top, buying herself some Esperan spiced ox jerky, and a box of rich coacoa crystals from Tal'lea. Nibbling on the decadent treats, and sighing at how flavorful they were, she made her way to the ponies.

  She knew, at this age, and her adult size, she would not actually be able to ride a pony. But she just wanted to see them, so she could better imagine a childhood where she had been allowed to do the things she wanted, where she'd had some idea of what she liked and who she was. As Veria watched the ponies go round and round on their path, Veria sunk her teeth into the ox jerky and was able to pick out the taste of the Rosa spice easily.

  The animals were just like her: harnessed to a wheel, a predestined circle for them to walk for ever and ever. One pony, with curly black hair mussed up around his face, snorted at her and kicked dust toward her boot. She stepped closer and patted him on his sweaty forehead. Examining the creature's endless dark eyes, she found that same loneliness and emptiness she had found in her own. Veria brushed hair away from his neck to see if he had a name tag anywhere. Hanging from a string around his neck, she found a copper plate with the word “Coacoa” on it, so she gave him a bite of her crystals, which he happily enjoyed with his eyes closed. The urge to 'accidentally' unlatch him from the wheel grew stronger the longer she stood by him. But she noticed the stable-keeper watching, and as soon as a round of the Fire Mager's 'Catch the Lie' game was finished, the ponies were rushed by a group of small excited children, jabbering about their favorite pony, or their favorite Mager tent so far.

  Veria smiled as a small golden haired girl silently struggled her way up onto Coacoa's saddle, and stroked his curly black hair. He closed his eyes happily. Apparently, you could at least enjoy the simple things when you were stuck on a meaningless path, Veria thought.

  There was only one item left on her list that she could complete here at the Fair, and it lay in the tent directly behind her. There was a reason she had been saving this for last—she was very nervous to hear her future, whether or not she believed that a Mager employed by a Fair could tell it. She glanced one last time at the ponies, who had all dropped their heads to dutifully trudge the children around in the circle. Then she disappeared into the brown striped, musky smelling tent.

  “Come sit,” said a gnarled old man, sitting hunched over on a cushion that was surrounded by frondy plants. He had silver hair in braids, with clay beads fastening the ends, and he motioned to a gold silk cushion across from him. As soon as she sat down, he said “Five crowns?” so she took the coins from her pocket and placed them in his freckled, wrinkled hands.

  “Have you come to discover truth, or future?” he asked, and began to fiddle with a bag of small gems and rocks.

  “I, uhm—I don't know,” she muttered. “I just came.”

  “Well, just pick one,” he coughed. Then he held out his hands. “Truth?” he said and raised the hand full of plain river rocks, “or future?” and he opened the hand to reveal a vibrant array of glimmering jewels. They caught the candle light and sent prismatic shafts of color dancing around the tent.

  Veria could not think of anything she needed to know the truth about. Maybe the truth about what really happened with her father, but she highly doubted that a Mager at a Fair could tell her that. Not for five crowns, at least. But she suspected that his representation of the truth as being the plain rocks and the future being the perfect jewels was meant to represent that his tellings of the future maybe be just that—shiny and perfect, and therefore, not real?

  “Truth,” she answered. He chortled and coughed again.

  “You know the truth,” he said.

  “What kind of discovery is that?” she snapped.

  “Why did you choose it?” he asked.

  “Because those gems are fake,” she answered, and the old man smiled wildly. “Or at least most of them are, there might be a real one in there. But you are trying to say that truth is more important than any of the possibilities of the future, and that your depictions of the future are just glistening counterfeits.”

  “You know the truth,” he repeated.

  “Well, if I know the truth,” she said tersely, “then I should like to hear your depiction of my future.”

  “Find the real gem among the fake, and I will tell you your real future,” he said. “For five more crowns,” he added, with a cough.

  He held his hand out and spread the little gems across his large palm. She studied them, but did not need to for long, before a sapphire, nestled in the crease of his hand, seemed to jump out at her. It suddenly seemed to be sparkling much brighter than the others, as if it had taken on a powerful glow from the inside. She plucked it out of his palm and tossed it on the floor in front of him. He smiled again, exposing very yellowed, crooked teeth.

  “Your future is such,” the old man began, and then laboriously cleared his throat before continuing, “that should you continue down your current path, you will endanger your own life. Your future is such that you have the options of power or love. I have discovered your future, and should you choose the right path, and choose the right option, you will end up having both in the end. Such is your future.”

  “But which path is the right path? What am I supposed to choose?” she groaned.

  “My sakes, I cannot tell you how to live your life! Only you can do that,” he grumbled back at her. And she realized nobody had ever told her that she was in any way responsible for her own path in life. “You know the truth,” he added, calmly.

  “You keep saying that!” she uttered, “but I do not know why.”

  “You will know in time. Such is your future,” he said, and he crossed his legs and placed his hands on his knees. “Are those coacoa crystals in that box?” he asked, licking his lips.

  “To Fire with you Earth Magers and your infernal nosiness!” she cursed him as she stood from the cushion and made her way toward the exit. “This was a waste of my time.”

  “And your money, also!” he chuckled. “Five crowns for the future discovery.”

  “Alright, alright,” she snapped as she fished more coins out of her dress pocket and flung them down on the floor near his cushion. “Waste of my time!” she repeated.

  “You know the truth!” he jibed, and she could hear him chuckling and coughing until she reached the edge of the Fairgrounds.

  The coachman dropped Veria off at the back door, and she slipped into the kitchen. Her plan was to have Andon go to her room and fetch a dress for her to change into. It was before dinner, and her mother would certainly be in the great room reading letters and having tea. She began to tiptoe back to Andon's quarters when she heard her mother's voice from the doorway that led to the dining hall.

  “That is an interesting choice of fashion,” her mother sneered. “I missed you at lunch today,” she said. I have missed you at lunch everyday for the past few weeks, in fact.”

  Veria had the distinct feeling she was being lied to. It tingled in her ears, and made them hot.

  “Well, mother, if you must know, I have been completely avoiding you,” she said, curtly.

  There was no point in further conversation. No point in lying or explaining. As a Fire Mager, her mother could detect deception, and if a deception had occurred, she could usually discover the actual events. The other sections of a skilled Fire Mager's powers included planting deceptions, and inducing passion, desire, and greed. A very skilled Fire Mager could convince an entire kingdom that a lie was actually a truth, just with a few powerful elemental rituals. A very skilled Fire Mager could make people go mad, or turn their simplest desires into vices that drov
e them to evil. Tanisca was not very skilled, but she was skilled, nonetheless.

  Tanisca's father, Veria's grandfather Sarco Pyer, was very skilled. In an attempt to rein in the potentially destructive and devastating effects that the Fire Mager skill set could have on people, the Consortium created the Red List. Fire Magers, and the occasional Wind Mager, on the Red List were those who had caused an innocent person harm, either directly or indirectly through mass effect powers, by deception or induction of one of the 'burning' feelings. Once on the Red List, the Mager in question would lose his privilege to sit in the Consortium, the collective council of the world's most powerful Magers, and it typically became very hard, if not impossible, to find any work with their skills.

  “You have been busy,” Tanisca mumbled after uncovering all of her daughter's activities. Tanisca wore a large flame-cut ruby ring on her left hand, that she had imbued with elemental strength with several Fire rituals years ago. When she detected a deception, for example, when Veria had planned to send Andon up to fetch her a different dress so her mother wouldn't see her in the simple town clothes, she would rub the ring and meditate on the deception, which generally, if she was well-rested and could concentrate, allowed her to see the full truth. Deceptions, like the Fire that ruled over them, were best served hot. If a lie settled and grew cold, it was harder for the truth to be discovered from it.

  In this case, since Veria had been sneaking around and hiding from her mother for weeks, and trying to cover her tracks on top of it, she had just handed Tanisca a wide array of fresh deception to work with. She would not have been at all surprised if her mother had just been able to see the entirety of the last two to three weeks of her life. Including—

  Her thought was interrupted as Andon, the very person she had just been thinking about, came in from the yard. He was sweaty, and his hair was pulled back haphazardly.

  Tanisca looked Andon up and down, and he froze under her gaze, then smiled nervously at her. “Madam Tanisca,” he addressed her with a nod, “and Lady Veria. I am surprised to see you both in the servant's area.”

  “Are you?” Tanisca scoffed.

  “Mother!” Veria snapped at her.

  “Oh, shush,” her mother laughed. “He is clean. Not surprised to see you in here, but he is most certainly the cleanest man I have ever met.”

  “Can I help you with something, Madam?” Andon asked, his voice calm and low, his accent extra smooth, no doubt for the benefit of his lover's mother.

  “You already have,” Tanisca smirked and she turned to her daughter. “Via, I would like to dine with you tonight. And, no, you cannot get out of it. I will let you choose the dish tonight. I am out of ideas.” And with dramatic flick of her curly vermillion hair, she turned and exited the kitchen.

  They waited in mutual suspense until the Madam's footsteps had reached the opposite end of the house, and then eventually become too quiet to hear.

  “What was that about?” Andon asked.

  “Your father did not tell you of my mother's powers?” she asked, accusingly.

  “Well, let me think about that,” he said facetiously. “In the massive amounts of time I spent with him as a child, he just loved to spend all of it talking about your mother.”

  Veria rolled her eyes at him. Then she explained all about Tanisca's powers and how her mother had used those powers to uncover everything that Veria had done in the past few weeks.

  “Including...you and I?” Andon asked.

  “Including you and I,” Veria confirmed with a nod.

  “That was why she was looking at me strangely?” he asked, and Veria nodded again. “What did she mean about me being clean?”

  “She means you have no deceptions,” Veria answered. “She could not detect that you were lying about yourself, or your past, or if you were being false to anyone. Like me. Apparently she figures the only reason anyone would want to go to bed with me is to get their hands on my fortune.”

  Andon frowned at her. “Did you think that?”

  “Of course not,” she answered. “But Mother thinks everyone is as lying, treacherous, and deceitful as she is. It truly surprises her when she meets 'clean' people, especially men. Men always lie to women.”

  Andon grabbed her arm and pulled her a step toward him. “Esperan men never lie to women,” he said seriously. She smiled. “Did you enjoy your day?” he asked, in a less serious tone.

  “Yes,” she grinned, “I did.”

  “Will you tell me about your day?” he asked again.

  “I will tell you whatever you want to hear,” she said softly, staring into his eyes.

  “Did you go to the Mager Fair?” he asked, with a smirk. She nodded. “Ah, I thought you might.”

  “I bought some ox jerky and coacoa crystals, oh—and then I met a pony named Coacoa!” she said.

  “Hah, you sound like a child!” Andon said with a large smile across his face.

  Veria tensed and pulled her arm away from him, and stepped back.

  “Veria, I mean that you sound happy, and excited,” Andon explained. “It is good for us to behave like children on occasion. We have to have some fun, or we would go mad.” He reached for her arm again but she pulled it out of his range.

  “What did you call me?” she asked, quietly.

  He was silent for a moment, as he realized his mistake. “I apologize—”

  “I do not care what happens between us—”

  “Oh, that is good to know!” he yelled over her.

  “—you will address me by my proper title!”

  “Are you finished, Her Ladyship Veria Jain Pyer Laurelgate of Longberme?” he said spitefully.

  “No, I am not,” she said. “You will make Rosa tonight, for my dinner with Madam Tanisca.”

  “Yes, my Lady,” Andon said, and he bowed dramatically, and would not look her in the eye.

  Veria glared at him as he began to gather the cookware to start the soup.

  “If there is nothing else this humble servant can do for Her Ladyship,” he said, his voice tight, restraining his anger, “I think it best that you leave the kitchen. It is not proper for a lady of your standing to be seen in servant's areas.”

  Veria huffed and spun on her heel, and charged out the door, feeling guilty and offended all at once. To Fire with him, too! she thought. I do not need him, I do not need my mother, I do not need Lord Rames, and I certainly did not need that ridiculous Earth Mager with his fake gems, she told herself. To Fire with all of them! I just need me. I am in charge now.

  -VI-

  Much to Veria's pleasure, the Rosa infuriated her mother, and Madam Tanisca went on a tirade on her only daughter about her 'out of control' behavior.

  “First you destroy a brand new garment of the highest quality—to spite me, I suppose!” her mother shouted, pacing along the Tal'lea rug that ran between the long dining table and the room's fireplace, after she had finished an entire bowl of Rosa. As much as she had acted repulsed by the thought of Esperan cuisine, Tanisca had devoured her portion, and even went so far as to completely clean her dish with her biscuit.

  “Now you are running off to silly commoner Fairs, having your future told by clowns, and eating cheap food—cooked by a work hand!” her mother yelled, throwing her hands around in the air as she did.

  Veria had been giggling quietly to herself for much of her mother's lecture, but she could no longer contain it, and burst into a loud fit of laughter. Her mother gave her a puzzled look as she slapped her cloth napkin to her lap and threw her head back, laughing uncontrollably, fully, and deeply.

  “I fail to see what you find so amusing, Via,” Tanisca snapped, and sat back down at the table as a small dessert tray entered the room with the cook. Veria sighed multiple times to try to bring her laughter to standstill, which she succeeded at, long enough to examine the dessert as it was placed in front of her. Her mother was doing the same.

  Veria had never seen this dessert before. It looked like a baked creamy custard of so
me kind, and it was coated with a glaze. It all looked simple enough, but she had no experience with this particular after-course. She did not have to wait long to find out what it was, though, before her mother erupted in fury.

  “More Esperan food! Are we just a house full of poor idiots now?” she screamed. “I humored you with the Rosa, but I will be sent to Fire before I eat this Esperan filth! Oh, I suppose you think you are very funny, Veria. Conspiring with your little kitchen friends to humiliate me with this atrocious cuisine.”

  Veria took a bite of the dessert. It was chilled, but with a distinct sponginess and crisp texture of having been baked at some point. The crisp shell was very sweet, and crackled delightfully before melting on her tongue, and the custard itself had a hint of creamy tanginess. She thought it was delightful, and made a show of devouring and savoring it in front of her fuming mother.

  “Lacrem karmel,” Tanisca muttered in disgust, as she watched her daughter eat the dessert. “Did your silly little Earth Mager clown predict that you would eat sour ox cream and eggs baked in sugar tonight, Via?” she sneered.

  “No,” Veria answered, with a mouthful of custard.

  “Well, then! Do enlighten me. I am quite curious what sort of fascinating future you bought yourself for ten Crowns. Since you apparently believe...oh, what was that again? People would have much more fun in their lives if they would quit listening to their mothers?” Tanisca said, speaking slowly and glaring across the table.

  Veria swallowed her dessert and cleared her throat. “If you must know,” she said, “he told me I would be putting myself in danger if I continued along this path in life.”

  “I completely agree!” Tanisca said, slapping the table. “Running around with common folk, throwing away your standings in the Regalship, and sleeping with whatever you can find in the kitchen.”

  “Shut up!” Veria shouted.

  Tanisca's red lips cracked into a mirthful smile. “Oh, did I strike a nerve?” she feigned innocence. “Let us call that payback for your assault on my refined taste with this worthless cuisine.”