Morrigan's Bidding

by Daniel Schinhofen

  “Risk and reward is what I’m hearing,” Sean said.

  “Indeed, any venture poses such a dilemma,” Darragh chuckled, holding out his cup for Misa to refill.

  “Do the explorers have a group or guild that they all collectively belong to?” Sean asked.

  “They do, but it is very difficult to gain entry. Only those who can prove they’ve found something worthy of the guild’s attention are accepted,” Darragh replied. “The only other option is to have a Talent that they seek.”

  “Good to know,” Sean said. “Might I excuse myself to ask Misa to train me in magic?”

  “I will be glad to, Sssean,” Misa said as she came around Darragh’s chair. “I ssshall take him to the kitchen, ssso asss not to bother you.”

  “That is fine, Misa. I hope you can learn at least a small something from her, Sean,” Darragh said, closing his eyes while he sipped his tea.

  The kitchen was small, with limited storage space and a fireplace taking up most of the room. Sean took in the room, seeing the bronze knives and wooden cutting boards. The edges of the cutting boards were covered in dried blood. “This is where all the food is prepared?”

  “Yesss,” Misa said catching his tone. “Problem?”

  “Bacteria. This is a breeding ground for things that can make people sick.”

  “What isss bactara?” Misa asked.

  “Tiny organisms, so tiny they can’t be seen with the naked eye. They carry disease and sickness with them, and spread through unsanitary food preparation areas, among other things.”

  “No one hasss gotten sssick,” Misa replied, bridling at Sean’s words.

  “Yet,” Sean sighed. “Bacteria grows, and the problem becomes worse the longer they have to breed. I really want to clean this place up.”

  “My kitchen isss clean already,” Misa said, her tail lightly thumping the floor in annoyance.

  Shaking his head, Sean bit back his knee-jerk reply. “Misa, your food is delicious. It is something I look forward to. With that said, though, I would really like to scrub down your prep area, please.”

  Tail thumping, Misa glared at him, tongue flicking out a couple of times before she replied. “If… if you can sssummon water today, then yesss, you can clean. If you fail, you will never talk about my kitchen again.”

  “We have an Agreement,” Sean said, feeling the weight of the words settle over him. Turning his attention to Misa, he waited for her to teach him.

  “Ssso eager to learn,” Misa hissed with laughter as she brought an empty pot over and motioned him to sit. Looking at the floor, he saw that it was mostly clean and did as she bade him. “For ssstartersss, you will need to chant the wordsss. It helpsss to focusss the energy you will ssspend to ssssummon the water. Lisssten to my wordssss carefully,” Misa told him sternly, “From water comesss life, without water there issss death. I bessseech the Queensss to hear my call to let me sssummon forth the most preciousss of all liquidsss. Come now water, anssswer my call and bring forth your essssssence for me.” While she said the words, her arms moved in a counter-clockwise circle above the pot as her three-fingered hands motioned a complex pattern. When the words ended, a stream of water flowed from her hands into the pot. After a minute, Misa pulled her hands further apart and the water stopped flowing. “Did you hear the wordsss?”

  “Yeah,” Sean said before repeating the words back perfectly, dropping the excessive hisses that seemed natural to Misa.

  Misa nodded, “Very good, but did you follow the arcane pattern that I created with my handsss?”

  “I know the pattern of your arms, but your fingers were a bit faster than I was able to follow the first time,” Sean admitted, as he hadn’t been expecting Misa’s fingers to be as nimble as they appeared to be.

  “Watch, thisss time without wordsss,” Misa waited for his nod, then swept her arms and fingers through the pattern again. Water spilled out from her hands and into the pot again, which she stopped a moment later. “Did you sssee?”

  Sean could see the pattern in his mind and tried to replicate it, but his fingers weren’t quite able to match hers. “I know what you did but…” he spread his five-digit hands out, “how do I account for the extras?”

  Misa hissed another laugh, “Very good, you asssk the right quessstion. You can’t make the sssame motionsss.” Her middle finger bent backward at a sharp angle without her touching it. “Naga are more flexible than humansss,” she said, with more hissing laughter.

  “Fair enough,” Sean said with a faint smile. “How do I manage to make the correct motions, then?”

  “Practice,” Misa said as she settled in, her vertical pupils focused on him. “I will wait.”

  Shaking his head with a wry grin Sean chuckled, “Okay, here we go.”

  He wasn’t sure how long he worked at trying to perfect the motions, but he stopped when his fingers started to cramp. Misa handed him some tea when he paused, “Drink.”

  Taking the cup, he sipped at it, “Thanks. What am I doing wrong?”

  “Nothing, and everything,” Misa said as she settled back into her spot.

  “Vague, not very helpful, and slightly condescending,” Sean said.

  “Yesss. I don’t get to be ssso often,” she replied with amusement as her tongue poked out from her snout slightly.

  “You were just waiting for me to give up?” Sean asked with a raised brow.

  “Yesss,” Misa nodded. “Now I will tell you the trick. Neither the wordsss nor the motionsss are what makesss the magic happen. They are only foci that helpsss one bring the energy inssside out to impossse your will upon the world. Sssome use carved wandsss or ssstavesss to help focusss their mindsss; my people teach by wordsss and gesssturesss.”

  “So just focus, and believe I can make it happen? That’s it?” Sean asked with a frown. “It can’t be that easy.”

  “Easssy, no. Imposssing your will on a world is not easssy. Like ssswinging a sssword, the more you do it, the more natural it isss and easssier to accomplisssh. If your mind waversss on the magic, it will fail.”

  “Okay, so I should set my own words and motions to use as a focus until it becomes second nature, then I can start trying to drop one or both of them, like you do.”

  Misa nodded, “Yesss. Try again?”

  Downing the tea, Sean nodded, “Yeah.”

  Closing his eyes, Sean felt for that vibration he related to Shaping. After a minute, he felt a small vibration near his heart. Focusing on that, he held his out left arm, his hand parallel to the floor and his elbow tucked to his side. Breathing slowly, he put his right hand, curled into a fist on his hip, letting the elbow flare out wide. Taking a few deep breaths, he began to chant.

  “I’m a little teapot, short and stout. Here is my handle, and here is my spout. When I get all steamed up, I just shout. Now tip me over and pour me out.” He felt the vibration in his chest surge out along his left arm as he tilted sideways. The draining of his energy was more pronounced than it was with Shaping, but not excessive. Misa’s gasp and the splashing of water brought his eyes open. Water was indeed pouring from his left hand.

  “Holy fuck,” Sean laughed. He let out a surprised yelp as the steaming hot water hit his leg. Rolling away from the water made him break the teapot position and the magic stopped. “Why was it hot?” Sean asked Misa as he rubbed at his leg.

  Misa stared at the steaming water before tentatively touching it. “It ssshould not be…” she trailed off and brought her eyes back to him. “You do thingsss that ssshouldn’t happen,” Misa stated simply her tongue flickering rapidly. “You did what you sssaid and sssummoned the water, ssso now you can clean my kitchen.”

  Sean considered what just happened with a frown. Maybe because I was specific that it’s when the teapot shouts, which is when the water boils, Sean mulled over internally. Shaking his head, he gave Misa a grin, “Thank you, Misa. Do you have any soap?”

  Chapter Fifteen

  Stepping out of Darragh’s house, he saw the lumb
erjacks just coming into the village with a log on their shoulders, wearing exhausted but smiling faces. “Cian, good to see you had a good day,” Sean said as he went over to talk to them as they dropped the log.

  Cian nodded, “It was a bit rougher without the extra body. Seems we might have forgotten in the last few days what trying to get two trees down used to be like.”

  “He’s not kidding,” Walden added, “we rotated who was using Dark Cutter but it was not as easy as the last two days had been.”

  “Glad to know I’m useful,” Sean chuckled. “I had a question, as I wasn’t paying attention over the last few days. Where do the regular axes get stored?”

  Brow furrowing, Cian replied, “I keep them in my home. Did you need one for tonight?”

  “Can I see all of them until dinner?” Sean asked, keeping a blank face.

  “Sure,” Cian said, shucking the axes off his shoulder and setting them down next to the log. “Here you go.” He handed over the hand axes, which were attached to a belt he was wearing. “We just got the one axe back from town, from your misadventure with it, so please don’t break it again.”

  Sean laughed, “I promise.”

  “We’ll see you at dinner,” Tamaya said, taking Cian’s arm and leading him away.

  “At dinner,” Sean replied as he draped the belt over his shoulder, before knocking on Fiona’s door.

  “Who is it?” Fiona called from inside.

  “Sean. I’m hoping you’ll let me step inside for a few minutes.”

  A minute passed before the door opened. “What did you need, Sean?” Fiona asked as she stepped aside for him to enter.

  “I wanted to look over these axes, but Darragh said that if my ability to Shape gets around too much I could be sought after, which I’d rather avoid at least for now.”

  Eyes scrunching as she looked at him, she let out a sigh. “Are the others outside?”

  “The axes? Yeah,” Sean said.

  Fiona brought them inside, shutting the door behind her. She placed them gently on her table before taking a seat. “I see they brought me a log again. Are you going to help me Shape it tonight?”

  Hearing the hint of hope, Sean paused before he answered. “Fiona…” he paused as he looked at the hand axes he had placed before him. “I upset you earlier. I want to apologize for that before anything else.” Lifting his gaze from the axes, he found her heterochromatic eyes watching him. “When I suggested changing your name earlier, I didn’t mean to hurt you.”

  Fiona let her head bow so her hair fell forward, creating a curtain between them. “I know. I was being foolish. I’m sorry if my reaction caused you distress, Sean. It wasn’t my intent.”

  “To answer your question, I would love to spend the night with you laughing, talking, and spending time enjoying your company,” Sean said. “I don’t know if Darragh would consider that fair for the Agreement we have in place, though. I’ll be going out with Cian and the others tomorrow again, and seeing what we can do now that I can do something with the trees because of what you taught me.”

  “I see,” the two words contained a mixture of sadness and joy. “I don’t wish to cause you to break an Agreement,” Fiona said after a brief pause. “I do hope we can Shape something again in the future.”

  “Want to help me check the axes?” Sean asked. “We can both Shape wood and metal, and it would go faster with a friend’s help.”

  “Friend…” the word seemed to linger on her tongue for a moment. “I will be happy to help you, Sean. Might I request something in trade?”

  “Of course,” Sean said with a smile, happy she had accepted his apology for earlier. “Did you have something specific in mind?”

  “Not yet, but I’ll give it some thought,” Fiona said. “I’ll ask for something later.”

  “Fair enough,” Sean said, “now let’s look over these axes and see if we can improve them.”

  “Sounds good to me,” the happiness in her voice was clear, and was made more clear when she brushed her hair back and her radiant smile was on display.

  That made Sean smile in return. He didn’t understand why she was so happy, but her smile was among the most beautiful things he had ever seen. Pulling his eyes away from her face, he focused on the axes, as he had something to do and she would distract him to no end if he didn’t focus.

  Picking up one of the axes, he placed the bronze head across one of his palms and held the haft in his other hand. Reaching into his middle, he felt the vibration he associated with the energy he used for Shaping and magic. The vibrations filled his body quickly as he touched that core. Focusing on the axe, he didn’t try to Shape it, but looked into the tool, to determine if it had flaws or deficiencies and whether or not he could make it better. The weapon seemed to turn translucent in his hands, the flaws in the blade and haft standing out as red spots in the pale blue image. Before he could start trying to fix them, another image appeared over the top of the tool.

  Bronze hand axe

  Common tool

  Poor quality

  “Game menus. Probably Oghma, he is the god of knowledge, after all,” Sean muttered under his breath. “Maybe Morrigan. She did say I would like it here.”

  “What was that?” Fiona asked as she continued to stare at the axe in her hands.

  “I can see the flaws, and was wondering if you can see them too?” Sean asked, to forestall having to explain his muttering, and out of genuine curiosity.

  “I can feel them, but the axe looks the same as it did. Do you see it differently?” Fiona asked as she glanced up to Sean.

  “Yeah,” Sean said, concentrating on the ugly red line halfway down the haft of the axe he held. “The axe looks like glass and the defects are red discolorations.”

  “Hmm. It would be helpful to be able to really see the flaws instead of just feeling them,” Fiona said as she set the axe down. “Do you think you could teach someone that Talent?”

  After he fixed the red streak on the edge of the blade, he removed all of the red splotches. As he stared at the axe in his hand, another tool-tip appeared.

  Bronze hand axe

  Common tool

  Uncommon quality

  “Neat. It’s much better now,” Sean said, turning to Fiona. “I wouldn’t even know how to try to teach you. I don’t even know what I did.”

  “If I asked, would you try for me?” She tilted her head to the side a fraction, brushing her hair back behind her ear and letting her blue eye be seen again.

  “I will try, if you’ll tell me more about your heritage,” Sean countered.

  Her playful demeanor shifted to uncertainty, eyes shifting side to side as she licked her lips. “That is not something worth the trade,” she said.

  “I think it is, and when bartering, the value of what something is worth is flexible,” Sean said evenly. “If you don’t want to, that’s fine. I just wanted to get to know you better.”

  Licking her lips again, she took a deep breath, “Okay. If you try to teach me how to see into an object, I will tell you something about myself.” She grabbed the next hand axe, keeping her eyes locked on it. “You’re so different,” Fiona murmured in a soft whisper that wasn’t meant to be heard.

  “I try,” Sean said.

  Fiona jerked her head up and stared at him with wide eyes, “You heard that?”

  “Yes. Was I not supposed to? I’ve noticed all my senses are sharper here than I previously had. I’ve heard everything said in my presence.”

  “We have sharp hearing in common then, at least,” Fiona smiled.

  “And Shaping, but that’s because you showed me how,” Sean pointed out, setting aside his second axe once he’d fixed all the flaws in it.

  “Two things are a good place to start,” Fiona said as she picked up her third axe.

  “A place to start?” Sean asked.

  “I think we can finish these before dinner,” Fiona said, dodging his question.

  Nodding, he focused on the task he’d a
sked her for help with, grateful that she was willing to help him. By the time he picked up the last axe, he could easily see how to fix all of the flaws. Fiona set her last axe down and sat back, letting her head hang off the back of her chair as she let out a deep sigh.

  Setting down the last axe, having finished it quickly, he looked over at Fiona and felt his heart beat harder for a moment. Swallowing hard, his eyes traced the graceful lines of her neck, then trailed down her figure as she arched her back, stretching her arms over her head. Tearing his eyes away just as she sat back upright, he coughed. “Ready for dinner?”

  Glancing at him, seeing his nervousness and his flushed cheeks, her lips turned up at the corners. “Is that an invitation?”

  “Huh?” Blinking, Sean met her eyes and found a knowing look in them as she smirked. “Umm, I mean, yes?”

  Standing, Fiona put the hand axes back into the belt loops. “We need to drop these off with Cian, as well.”

  “Right,” Sean agreed as he gathered up the first of the six large bronze axes. As he did, he smiled at how sleek and sharp each of them looked. With pursed lips, he focused on the axe and tried to get it to change as Fiona had done with her staff the other night.