Story : The first morning

From Ars Magica

Revision as of 11:26, 26 March 2006 by Admin (Talk | contribs)

Ambrosius Arises

I knew I should have cast a ward around his bed, Ambrosius thought to himself. He cast around the common room for some sign of his brother’s passing, but found none. As Llewys grew older and more adventurous, this had become a morning ritual while on the road. Sometimes Alicia was the first to discover him missing, sometimes Ambrosius was, but always he managed to sneak out of the room, regardless of the obstacles. This morning was no different. With a quick glance at the drawn shutters, the mage guessed that it was sometime before dawn, maybe mid dusk. Ambrosius stretched and began the process of putting on his boots and cloak. He paused as he was about to bind his hair with the chain, thinking twice. Instead, he withdrew a leather strap from his backpack and tied his hair back with that. Almost as an afterthought, he reached down and grabbed his brother’s staff. While he’d originally crafted it as a gift to excite Llewys about the upcoming trip, his brother had been using it steadily since they’d left Spiritus Draconis, making it a handy arcane connection for those times when Ambrosius or Alicia had trouble finding where the boy had gotten off to. He hoped it would not be needed this morning, as this was the first time in several weeks that Llewys had wandered off in a public place.

Picking his way around the others in the room, he set out for the door. Not wanting to wake anyone, he considered casting a silencing spell around himself, but to do it without voice or motions, so as to keep it hidden from those not associated with the order already, well, that would be difficult, so he did his best to leave the room stealthily.

He came down the stairs quietly and passed through the nearly empty common room and headed for the door.

Several of the regulars had passed out around the snug, and the barmaids had picked their way amongst them, draping some scruffy looking blankets over them. The dog had taken the opportunity to place itself before the glowing embers of the fire, and was moving fitfully as it dreamt of chasing hares.

As he started to creep across the room in order to leave them inn, a floorboard creaked suddenly under his feet, almost waking the dog, and one of the patrons near to him. After a few moments, the patron rolled back over and slumped in his chair, while the dog appeared on the verge of waking. Ambrosius decided to freeze for a few moments to give the dog a chance to fall back into a deeper sleep. He knew that if he woke up, he would sense The Gift as a threat, and could start barking, waking the whole room. Ambrosius said to himself, “How the heck did Llewys do it?” He realized belatedly that he said it just a touch too loud.

Once silence had settled across the room, he tentatively began to move across the room. The sleepy murmurs, crackles of embers, and creaks from movements upstairs easily masked his footfalls. As he neared the door, he felt a great sense of relief at averting disaster. Walking around the last obstacle, a long bench between himself and the door, he was appalled when his foot clipped a pewter goblet that sat forgotten behind the stool. With a splash and a clatter, the goblet rolled away, stirring sleepy grumbles of complaint from the drunken regulars, and scrabbling sounds of claws upon stone as the dog sought to right itself.

Without thinking, Ambrosius reached the door in two great strides, and hurried through, though sadly not before the dog had barked twice.

Ambrosius insert here

It was then that he noticed a figure stood some distance away in the moonlight. Across the road, in the middle of a moonlit field, stood someone who looked like they might very well be Llewys. Whoever it was had their back to the inn, and seemed to be waiting for something.

Later that morning

Continued

Retrieved from "http://editthis.info/Ars_Magica/Story_:_The_first_morning"
Personal tools