Story : The first morning
From Ars Magica
Contents |
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.
Llewys and Ambrosius watch the sun rise over the vale
At least they won’t know for sure who woke them, he thought thankfully as he pulled the door closed behind. Our relationship with this vale is far too important to ruin the first morning. He chuckled to himself and thought, We should wait until next week, at least! Ambrosius started wandering around the quiet village in the predawn moonlight. He could see the first whispers of sunlight over the eastern ridgeline, and he could hear the early morning cries of birds waking from their slumber. The time of the morning was magical, he knew. A time of transition, from the night and all that accompanied it in body, mind and spirit, to the day and all things known. It was at this time that Llewys always snuck off, sometimes without regard to the temperature, a fact that irked Alicia to no end. Ambrosius was nearing the northern edge of the village proper, where the few structures that there were faded into farmland and pasture when 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. He made to call out to his little brother, but thought better of it – to violate the early morning quiet seemed to be akin to a violation of nature. Given the manner of his exit from the Inn, Ambrosius knew he could not go back any time soon anyway, so it seemed to him that time was something he had plenty of. It would be good to watch the sunrise as well, he decided, so he found a convenient rock on the side of the road and sat, one eye on his brother and one on the crack of light expanding along the top of the eastern hills.
The rising sun drove long shadows back across the fields toward the hills that had cast them forth. In the growing light, Ambrosius could readily make out Llewys's clothing and brown hair. The boy stood still, taking stock of the dawn as though transfixed by the colours of the clouds. As the lower limb of the sun cleared the hills, Llewys seemed to relax. He glanced about himself idly, before turning and heading back toward the Inn. He had barely walked a couple of yards when he spotted Ambrosius watching him, and with a sigh, reluctantly headed over to him.
"Good morning, Little Brother. How was your early morning stroll?"
“My... stroll?”
Ambrosius smiled. “Yes, your stroll. How do you think you got out here?”
“I woke up early... “ he replied quickly.
"That you did," Ambrosius chuckled.
Llewys relaxed a little when he heard his brother's laugh. He had half expected a stern lecture about wandering off in strange surroundings; maybe the morning was simply to pleasant for such thoughts.
The mage looked deep into his brother's face, studying the expresion. "You seem a bit out of sorts, my friend. What is the matter? Don't you remember coming out here?"
The boy looked sheepishly at the ground "I was sleepwalking again," he said quietly.
"Ah," Ambrosius said, "I see. You don't remember leaving the common room?"
"I remember going up to bed. There was an old woman in there who said some unkind things when I clambered into my cot." He frowned as he recalled the encounter, "and she snored."
"Is it possible that you stepped on her when you went to bed, little brother? It's not like it would be the first time."
"She said I jostled her cot, but I tried to step as lightly as possible. The others didn't complain."
"Bah, some just find it easier to complaint than to act. I wouldn't worry about it too much." The magus paused for a second. "Tell me though, you do not remember getting up and getting out of the Inn? There was some fairly fancy footwork involved there - it's hard to believe a sleepwalker could have done it."
"That never stopped me at the covenant," he replied. He cheered up a little as he thought of his escapades in that dry and scholarly place.
"Hah! You're lucky you didn't get your hair roasted off by some irritated grand master, you are!" Ambrosius rustled the boy’s hair. "When you saw me, you looked a bit more out of sorts than normal. I just want you to know - if you ever want to talk about it, if anything is ever bothering you, remember, I can always make time for you..."
Ambrosius flicked his wrist dismissively, "Unless I'm fighting a dragon, or binding a daemon, or eating a sweet tart..."
"A dragon? Are there any around here?" The boy asked, suddenly alarmed at the thought of large roosting monsters hiding amidst the craggy peaks about them.
Ambrosius laughed heartly. "I doubt it very seriously, little man! Besides, I'm sure you haven't got anywhere near enough meat on your bones to be very appetizing!"
"The only dragon I know of right now is the one I woke as I left the Inn - the one disguised as a dog in front of the fireplace! Do you think he might have calmed down by now?" Ambrosius looked back towards the Inn, hoping to see the signs of the kitchen fires going and a break for their fast in the works.
Llewys nodded seriously, before his older brother's words sunk into his groggy mind, "Hey," he exclaimed, "that's not a dragon. If I was going to disguise myself as a dog, I wouldn't choose to be a mangy old thing like that..." Firmly convinced of the logic of his statement, he took his elder brothers hand; "come on, I'll prove it to you."
Ambrosius allowed himself to be led off, back to the Inn by the boy, a smile on his face the entire way. The sun was fully up and over the ridgeline by the the time they got back to the Inn, and the chickens, now awake and pecking at the path for seed, scattered out of the boy's advance as they reached the door and went inside.
As they entered, Ambrosius could tell that the staff had already started the warming fires. He didn't know if they did any warm break fasts here, but he was hoping for a loaf of fresh baked bread and some newly churned butter to spread on it. The Magus let go of his brother's hand as he moved to a table now unoccupied by the previously slumbering patrons and waved his hand towards one of the maids that had served them the previous night. He knew there was a long day ahead, and he wanted to be ready for it. He glanced over to where Llewys sat, stroking the once-again slumbering dog. He thought to himself, We will all need to be ready for it.
Later that morning
Continued
- Next page: Marcus and the manor. Marcus attends church at the manor.
- Next page: Climbing Caer Caradoc. Bedo and Phaedrus explore a large hill fort.
- Next page: The road to Hockstow Forest. Eirlys and Longinus set forth.
- Next page: Atop the Long Mynd. Ambrosius and Mnemosyne explore the Long Mynd.
