Magical Apprentices For a Day: Chapter 1

“I’m sorry, Andriel, but I just have too many clients coming in today to look at Bastien. Take him to the Healing Tree and I’ll take a few hours tomorrow to look at his wing. He shouldn’t be corrupted, I did that spell-” “Yes, a temporary block of the corruption, not a full healing spell. The Wrai- I mean Senka interrupted us.” Andriel spoke with as much respect for the overworked witch as they could muster, but with Bastien acting strangely and that weird red glow coming and going, it was hard to just calmly accept ‘tomorrow’ for an answer. Maja stopped, blanching to a pale green shade as she remembered those tense moments when Senka had descended upon Sol, Harken and Bastien speeding away with their riders and Bastien still hurt from one of the Rhakos biting him. “Ah, that’s right.” Maja recovered, “Unfortunately I can’t just leave right now…” Maja put down her mortar and pestle to consider. “What if I help?” Andriel offered. “Just tell me what to do and I can help you clear your current orders if you’ll tell any new clients to come back tomorrow.” Maja saw the sense in this and nodded, “Alright. This is what I need you to do. We’re going to need Bastien’s ice breath too, so go get him and I’ll shut the doors to new customers for the rest of the day.”

Bastien proved somewhat willing to come along, though the red glow was back when they landed at Maja’s shop. “Oh dear.” Maja sighed, “Let’s hurry. Bastien, if you start feeling like taking a chunk out of me, just remember Ghost is here and they’re not afraid to knock you silly.” Bastien glanced at the sleeping lycan and nodded his horned head once, the red in his eyes flashing as he winced at some internal pain. “Alright, I need you to keep this stuff cold here.” Maja instructed him, talking him through using his newfound ice breath so he didn’t turn her whole abode into a chunk of ice. Once he was set up, Andriel was led to a table where they were set to cutting herbs and measuring ingredients- tedious physical labor. It was only fair, since Andriel had never brewed a magical concoction of any sort before. They crushed aromatic herbs, diced raw roots, cubed chunks of strangely colored meat, and plucked feathers from dead birds. Overall, it was a rather gross endeavor and Andriel was sweating after a few hours. Maja really hadn’t been kidding about being booked today. At some point in the afternoon Maja must have taken pity on Andriel and moved their workstation closer to Bastien. At least, that was what they thought the reason was until they saw Bastien. Even his ice breath was turning red, a miasma of red vapor coming off the ice. Maja tossed Andriel a potion and instructed them to give it to their stryx as another bandaid. 

The new potion cleared up the red in his ice, but Bastien’s eyes were still red and he was starting to make ominous noises when either his rider or Maja came too close- though he was maintaining his ice breath on the intended target. For now. “Let’s hurry and finish this, shall we?” Maja asked in a would-be lighthearted manner, though a bead of nervous sweat at her brow betrayed her concern. “Yes. Agreed.” Andriel quipped, taking the pestle to a bowl of herbs more vigorously than they’d done previously. Maja sent Beacon out with notes to all the day’s clients to let them know they would need to come get their orders, due to an emergency. Otherwise one of the delivery services in Sol would bring their orders to the address Maja had for them. Finally, at dusk, Maja declared the orders were ready and helped sort them into piles for pickup and delivery. A harpia arrived shortly after the last pickup order was claimed to carry off the packages that Maja and Ghost normally delivered. 

Waking the lycan proved to be easy, and Ghost quickly went to Bastien to keep an eye on the harpia while Maja and Andriel set to work brewing the full healing potion Bastien would need to cure the corruption. Unfortunately, it proved to be too late. Maja exclaimed in surprise as Bastien suddenly whipped his head away from Andriel, his larger wings bursting open and sending his rider flying backward into her. A scream of pain and rage burst from the harpia’s throat, the potion they’d just given him coming back up in a steaming red puddle that started to eat away at the floor before Maja threw sand over it to neutralize it. “Ghost, try to restrain him!” Andriel dove for Bastien’s reins which were swinging freely to halt his thrashing just as Ghost leaped upon his back and drove him down onto his belly. Maja unleashed a powerful spell that rendered the harpia unconscious, the red fading slowly until the normal golden glow of Bastien’s nokt marking came back. Breathless, Maja shook her head at Andriel. “We need to look into other options now. I’m afraid his corruption has taken root deep in him. The four of us need to have a talk. A serious talk. Because the corruption couldn’t have taken root like this unless there was some sort of pain and anger already inside Bastien before now.”