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The choices we make 99
“I would love to,” Mary said, looking at him. “But I don’t want to take time away from you seeing your family. I know you don’t get to see them that often,” she said. Tenac shrugged.“I will visit them as often as I can while they are here. It’s okay, I wouldn’t have asked if it weren’t,” he said.“Okay, then I would love to come.”“Good. Now let’s get you a new horse,” he smiled.“No, Tenac. I have told you, Buttercup will do,” Mary objected.“I’m not letting you anywhere near my grandfather whilst you are riding Buttercup, Mary. If you are going to visit a Che’hul camp, you can’t be on a horse like her,” he said. Mary looked at him. She really wanted to go with him to visit his family. Her curiosity and thirst for new things was going crazy at the thought of getting to see this whole new culture. At the same time, it felt like she was betraying Buttercup. The horse had been patient with her from the start. Mary recognised Tenac was dangling the visit to the Che’hul camp as an incent
The choices we make 100
The time until the winter solstice went by quickly and before she knew it, Mary was running around the equipment she had helped Procecsa set up the day before the solstices. They were outside the wall, on a flat part of the plain. The grass had been cut down and a light dusting of snow barely covered the ground. The area was guarded by grey riders. Not for the fear of someone sabotaging their experiments, but to keep curious people away. There was a lot of preparation to be made. Luckily for Mary, she had already done this a couple of times before. According to magical theory, occasions such as the winter solstice and full moons could affect magic in different ways. But to Mary’s surprise, it had never been proven, even though everyone used the principle. Procecsa had therefore designed an experiment to perform some basic magic, which was easy to perform and evaluate the effect of and repeat this during the different beneficial celestial occasions. They had already done the control ro
The choices we make 101
“We finished Procecsa’s experiments today, and we think we can see a pattern,” Mary told Tariana excited. She didn’t know how Tariana already knew about it, but it was the only thing exciting which had happened lately. Tariana laughed again.“That is exciting to hear, but no. I was thinking about the fact that you have gotten some control over your fire magic,” Tariana smiled.“Oh, that. Yes, Procecsa helped me with it last night,” Mary said. She didn’t understand what was so exciting about that.“Do you think you could summon it now?” Tariana asked.“I think so,” Mary nodded. Tariana stood and went over to the bookcase. She got a small tray and walked back, placing it on the desk in front of Mary. On the tray there was a candle, an empty bowl, a feather, a pile of what looked like soil, and a plate with a dried bean.“Please light the candle,” Tariana asked Mary. Mary focused and after a while she found the now familiar feeling of her fire magic. The candle lit. “Fill the bowl with w
The choices we make 1
Mary knew the sun was about to come up. She lay in her bed, waiting for the first light to find its way through the gap in the closed shutters. Under the covers, it was warm, but when Mary got out of bed she knew the chilly morning air would make her shiver. So she stayed under the blanket even though she knew she should get up. Suddenly, there was a loud coughing attack from the bed on the other side of the room. Mary forced herself to get up and wrapped her woollen shawl around her as she rushed to the other bed. It was her mother who had coughed. Mary looked at her mother and saw the glazed look, though it met her gaze, it didn’t seem to see her. Mary was afraid of that look. Her mother had had it for almost three days and Mary’s father had had it for almost five. It had been almost two weeks since her father first got sick and then her mother had fallen ill. Now she was the one who took care of them and the household. She turned around and went back to her own bed. There, her dres
The choices we make 2
“Good morning, Mr. Sansi,” she said hurriedly, rising from the stool. She just reached over the high counter and thought for a moment about standing on the stool. She changed her mind and instead approached the man who was standing just inside the door. “Can I help you?” she asked, stopping a short distance from him. She had had a good upbringing and knew how to treat customers who were in the upper classes of society.Mr. Sansi was a regular customer of her father, and she was happy he had arrived today. He rarely left the shop without buying something.“Where’s your father?” he asked, looking at Mary.“He’s been sick and is resting, Mr. Sansi,” Mary replied.“And your mother?”“She too has been sick, Mr. Sansi. But they are both on the mend,” Mary hurried to add.“I understand. So you’re in charge of the shop today?” Mr. Sansi asked.“Yes, sir.”“I’ve been here a couple of times in the last few weeks, hoping it would be open. I was pleased when I saw it was open today. But I don’t k
The choices we make 3
“Are your parents better?” Mrs. Korpi asked.“A little, thank you. Father talked to me today but he’s still weak and needs to sleep,” Mary replied. She stopped when she saw Mrs. Korpi seemed to recoil as she got closer.“Who’s running the shop today?”“I am. We need to bring in some money to be able to buy meat in the market.”“Is it really wise to open the shop? You should perhaps wait until your father or some adult can take care of it.”“I’m sure you’re right, but I have to take care of my parents, so I don’t have a choice.” Mrs. Korpi seemed to hesitate a little. She looked back into the shop and then examined Mary for a while.“How are you, Mary?” she asked.“Thank you, I’m fine,” Mary replied honestly.“You don’t have a fever or cough?”“No, I’m perfectly healthy.” Mrs. Korpi looked at her again.“Mary, I think you’d better come live with us. You shouldn’t be alone here; you’d be better off at our home.” Mary looked at Mrs. Korpi in surprise. Did she really want Mary to leave he
The choices we make 4
“Not for a long time,” he said, sounding just as sad. Mary couldn’t take it anymore. She couldn’t talk to her parents and the neighbours didn’t want to help her, and now she couldn’t see Erik. She felt completely alone and isolated in the world. The tears welled up and began to run down her cheeks. Erik stood on the other side of the courtyard and looked at her unhappily. He didn’t know what to do.“Dad said the Lady’s coming tonight. Maybe she can help your parents and then maybe we can play again,” he said.“Who’s the Lady?” asked Mary, sobbing.“Dad says that before the church existed, it was the Lady who was the church. But when the king’s ancestor founded the church, the Lady left. But now she’s coming back to help us get rid of the sickness.” Mary listened to what he said. She stopped crying and was now wiping her cheeks.“But how could she be the church?” she asked. “Women can’t be priests.”“What do I know?” Erik said, shrugging. “I have to go now,” he added, looking at her. S
The choices we make 5
Mary looked around and suddenly realized what was wrong, it was the sound of her parents’ breathing. It no longer sounded strained as it had done in the past week, but it was not the breathing that Mary used to lie and listen to when she couldn’t sleep when her parents had been healthy either. This breathing came quickly; it was as light as a feather and sometimes it seemed to stop for several minutes. Mary knew nothing about sickness, let alone death. But in her heart, she knew the breathing she heard from her parents was wrong. Something was very wrong. The panic quickly crept into her, and Mary felt it take a firm hold of her heart. Why had she stayed so long looking for eggs? She should have stayed inside and taken care of her parents. What would she do now? No one could or would help her. Mary sank to the floor in the middle of the room and cried. All the fear and sadness she had inside her came out in the desperate cry of a ten-year-old girl. After the worst of the crying subsid
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