Secrets Best Kept

"Not now, Ignacy!" I say sharply, taking the prepared tea and hurrying to Edgeworth's room. Inside, I sit on the bed, lifting the man's head and shoulders into my arms. He's as light as a bird, and his eyes flutter open. I smile. "Here. Drink this." He smiles feebly, and I pour the tea into him, massaging his throat to help the tea go down. He subsides in my arms. That should help a bit, but just in case, I close my eyes. I think back to the coldest winter I've ever known, imagining the cold, the biting wind and the perfect ice gleaming on the trees, and raise my voice. I sing of snow and sharp wind, the bite of winter and the way it cools the blood and chills the bone. Frost begins to rime the sheets, coalescing on his hair. I relax, feeling his forehead. Lower. Thank the gods. I lay my lips on his forehead, placing a charm of health and healing on him, a blessing. There. His body should take care of the rest. I lay him back on his pillow, and, quietly, step from the room.

The mist casts odd shadows, continually weaving phantoms and wraiths that rush up and dissolved into vapor a moment before I tense for an attack. The ground squelches beneath my boots, my footsteps plainly visible in the trampled loam as I peer over my shoulder. Mud splashes, a dog whines in the middle distance and phantom lights bounce in and out of view just beyond my line of sight. Ignoring all this, I doggedly trudge onward, the grim clinging to my cloths and hindering my steps.
It rises sharply, no apparent reason, simply the thing to do. The ground dries underfoot and the grays and muted greens of the marsh grasses transforming into small white flowers swirling outward around the base of the rising mound. A dim path continues upward, terminating in a pair of upright stones coming together at a rough peak; set behind, a living door, planks of hawthorn sprouting twigs. As I stretch a hand to touch it, it wakes and springs into bloom, its white flowers falling, giving way to deep red fruit. It groans as the wood branches, then swings in permitting me through.
The corridor smells of mild mildew, torn curtains hanging from bars lending a haunted feeling to the environment. A sound like a woman weeping echoes in the passage and a feeling calls for me to investigate; I track it to another door and push it open. In the middle of the room, a tall four poster protects a shadowed figure with a obscured glimpse of red hair behind thin linen curtains. The crying subsides as I enter.
"Are you unwell?"
The figure shifts silently, uncomfortably, and appears to shake her head.
I see and nod to acknowledged. "Can I help?" I take a step further into the room as she nods.
Eyes, beautiful Eyes...
Perfect glowing teeth...
A mane of red tresses...
These flash through my mind as I step closer and reach to pull the blood red curtain aside.
Big Eyes, Big Ears, Big Teeth...
The person lying on the bed, two at once... its like looking at two pictures at the same time one a beautiful, stately woman of advancing age, the other youthful, brilliant as the sun...

I roll out of the bed and strike my head against the polished hardwood floor. Cursing loudly, I rub my head and glare at the bed. The stars behind my eyes explode as the hangover resulting of the previous night strikes with a fury, ring in my ears as I grope blindly for the door.

Looking between where Liv disappeared and the pyro I appraise his actions " you forgot the sterno" is all I can say before returning to my omelet

I glance over my shoulder as a door opens, and frown as I see Djhuety staggers out of his room, leaning against the wall. He looks terrible, his hair a mess, his eyes the milky color of a cataract, his head full of pain and confusion. "I see I'm not the only one with a hangover after all." I say quietly, stepping up to lay a hand on my friend's arm. "Come on. I'll make you something to get rid of the pain."

i walk up to liam dragging my cart behind me and ask "you know the art of blacksmithing no?".

Growling, I put a hand to my eyes, attempting to block the offensive light, as I blindly reach for Liv's shoulder with the other. The lights dim in the room in response, but I continue to curse loudly as I stumble, fumbling for my coat before realizing that its back in my room... "Beer, whiskey, brandy, hair of the dog..." I groan, trying to see past the fireworks in my skull. The dream already beginning to fade among the clouds of pain.

"Willowbark and eyebright is what you need, not whiskey." I say, deftly removing his hand from my breast and placing it around my shoulder, "And at least your masculinity is intact, if not your health." I lead him down the hall, depositing him in a chair, where he slumps, his hands over his eyes.

finishing the last of the omelet "I am about 3 hundred years out of practice but I remember it why do you ask?" now he has my attention the wheels begin to turn faster and faster in my head. that poor gerbil must be choking on the sawdust smoke as he begins looking, would the pyro want an axe? sword? or spear?

I gesture around me with my hands "i have an idea nay! a vision! a sword like none other a sword with a flamethrower nozzle attached to it" as i say the last words i suckle on the bottle.

"Oh no you don't." I say, "Not in this house! You do enough damage as it is."
Then I turn back to my mixing. Cracking an egg into the glass, I add honey and salt, then pour cayenne pepper in, followed by essence of willow bark, feverfew, dandelion root, burdock, milk thistle seeds and echenacia, and finish the mixture by squeezing an orange and a ginger root into the glass. I carry it out, setting it in front of Djhuety. "Drink this."

I grin "but Liv he becomes a great weapon we point him at things and say have fun" I grin "besides I could have some fun" I continue to grin the project taking shape in my head

I take a sniff and wrinkle my nose... "not in this life time."

i snort loudly and say "you just hate me cus im black!"

I frown at Liam. "If you catch the house on fire, or let him do so, I will smack you, and it will hurt." Then I turn back to Djhuety, whose eyes are squeezed shut. "Djhuety, don't be a baby. It's got cleansing herbs and willow bark in it. It'll clear your head and heal your body. I'll even..." I take a flask from my pocket, and pour a stream of clear liquid into the glass, making it froth, "There. Now it's got a kick of caffeine as well. You'll thank me after you've got it down."

"It smells like a water treatment plant... I'm not touching it." I say, a might to loudly and touch my head to the table as a fresh wave of pain courses through my head.

"Coward." I say sharply, "I drink this every Beltane to purify after the revel. If I can drink it once a year you can handle it. Once you get used to it, it tastes fine" I push it forward. But just as quickly, he pushes it away.

I look at Liv and wink picking up two of the pans off the hanging rack, walking behind Djehuty I take two steps back from him and bring the pans together hard to make them ring right behind his head, "Liv NOW" I say expecting him to cry out in shock at pain, I drop the pans and grab him to hold him up so she can pour the. . . concoction down his throat. I almost wish Kaija had been here for this, Oh well she will be laughing riotously when she does hear, if she doesn't kill me for the racket. . again

My eyes narrowed, I dump the glass down his throat. He has no choice but to swallow, and then he's leaning against the table, taking a great heaving breath. "There." I say decisively, "That wasn't so bad."

I glare up at my tormentors before a cramping in my stomach forces me double. I slouch under the table and curl into a miserable ball, whimpering as the burning sensation encompasses my mouth and gut.

I glance in Liam in surprise. "It's never done that before...then again, I never drank it that fast..."

I go to the icebox and gets a bag of ice and cup of water combining the two I make that magical elixer known as ice water I place it by my poor abused friend "drink this it is just water" I grin "so what are we planning now?"

Growling, I shoot a look at Liam. "Go help Ignacy blow up the house," I say through gritted teeth... "I'll be fine..."

"Let's just give him a few minutes to come back to himself." I say slowly, "And then we could probably go to the market; we're running short of food." Then I turn to Ignacy. "If you're going to create that thing, please, please be careful. I like this apartment."

I begin laughing a deep belly laugh at this statement "If you are fine then eat your breakfast before it gets cold, eggs sausage and cheese omelet" i smile as he turns a little green with my words. "besides i need parts to make the project."

I down the rum bottle and look at djhuety "you girlie man" in a distinct german accent, i look at liv "im always careful".