We landed in the clearing in front of Mary’s cottage as twilight shone through the trees. The door opened to greet us as Mary came, no doubt alerted to our presence through the use of some sort of magical barrier. Come to think of it she did mention having spells set up for home defense.

Or rather, we directly saw the effectiveness of those when the bandits attacked. In retrospect I probably should have been more cautious flying in, although we seemed to not have had any issues. Her magic seems a hell of a lot more intimidating that a claymore-mounted Roomva or other “extreme” forms of home defense.

The pleased look on Mary’s face turned to one of concern when she saw I had used the broom to return. She had told me it was for emergencies after all, and I can’t imagine she’d be thrilled that I had gotten into a situation tough enough where I would have needed to use it. Despite her oddities she seems to worry about me running into issues as her apprentice; she can be oddly caring at times. It must be part of the master/apprentice relationship.

However, when she saw the passenger I had returned with, her expression soured. She did not look pleased in the slightest to see her niece with me. Did she assume I had dragged her close relative into some sort of mess? I pray she doesn’t think so. I was forced into having to take care of Elizabeth, who almost seemed to take some sort of weird pleasure out of having me guard her.

Despite having only been in this world a couple weeks, and despite being aware of her eccentricities, I had started valuing her opinion early on into my apprenticeship. Not only had she saved my my life, she had taken me in, let me be her student, and had spent the past several weeks instructing me in the ways of this world along with magic. So this displeased look…

“Rose,” Mary said flatly. “Could you wait inside for a bit? I need to talk with my niece here about something.”

I slowly nodded, then fled inside the house.

Sitting on the couch in the library, I paged through a book absentmindedly, my eyes facing the pages but not registering the words. My thoughts were still on the painful feeling I had felt when I saw Mary’s expression of distaste. Maybe I just don’t deal well with the thought of letting someone down. Still, my heart hurt far more than it should over such a thing.

Despite all the time I spend lost in thought, introspection is not exactly one of my strong suits. It’s ironic in a way, considering most of my training has pretty much been meditating about plants. You would think I’d pick up a bit more skill understanding my own emotions with all the time spent in my head. Something one of my friends said back in the Marines came to mind. “You have less self-awareness than a rock, and wouldn’t know how you feel on something even if it beat you over the head with a rock. You’re good at your job but even a tumbleweed has more assertiveness than you do most the time.”

That friend really...was stretching for examples to compare me to but in her defense we were in the Mojave, surrounded by nothing but rocks and desert shrubs. It was one of those conversations that tend to happen when you’re spending twelve hours standing around doing nothing. It’s a shame she got hurt in that training accident, since at times it seemed she knew more about me than even I do. I hope she’s doing well.

Pondering this, I slowly became aware of a noise from outside the house. It almost sounded like yelling… Straining my ears, I tried to make out what was being said. Outside of a few words here and there, such as “hands off her” and “tell your father” I couldn’t really make out much.

I stopped trying to listen in, feeling ashamed yet again. I’m sure Elizabeth wouldn’t want me to hear her being chewed out by Mary. I’m assuming my lecture is sure to come later, there’s no need to go borrowing trouble. Besides, from the sound of it, the yelling is about over.

About a minute or two later the front door opened, and I could here footsteps entering the front hall.

` “And go grab some drinks. We’ll be in the library.” Mary ordered, her voice still harsh from her previous yelling. As her footsteps approached the library, I braced myself for a lecture that was sure to come. After all, I had spent all afternoon with the lords daughter escaping masked bandits, I’m sure I must have done something wrong, something to deserve at least a bit of yelling… Upon entering the library, Mary made a beeline for the couch and pomfed herself down next to me.

“Uhm...Mary?” I managed to squeak out.

She looked at me a moment, a serious look on her face, before saying “Don’t forget, you’re my apprentice.”

“O-of course...” I replied, waiting for more.

Instead, she asked calmly as she turned towards me, “Where you able to get everything on the list?”

“Yes. I was worried about one of the items, but a sea captain who came up from the south continent had some of that one plant you were looking for...”

“Great!” she exclaimed, all of the previous seriousness gone. “I’ve heard rumors about it, and there’s all sorts of potions I could brew from it! The books made it sound like it had so much potential...”

“Calm down, the CIA doesn’t like people butting in on their business.”

“What was that?”

“Nothing. So… you aren’t going to ask about the incident with the Tailors guild?” I hesitantly asked.

“Oh, I already heard about it from the brat. It sounded like you handed it well, despite someone working to manipulate the situation to her advantage.”

“Who is that?”

“I wouldn’t worry about it. If you didn’t notice it, then everything is fine.”

“Okay...”

“So anyways, did you get anything for yourself before you had to flee?”

“..Shouldn’t we be more concerned about the Tailor’s guild trying to murder me?”

“A bunch of small fry. And they just fucked up majorly today too. They’ll be dealt with in time, but it’s no use fretting too much about it at the moment. I’ll take care of it tomorrow when I take that brat back to the city. I’m more excited about you managing your first trip solo in this world so well.”

“Then what was all that yelling about earlier? That didn’t sound like a normal reaction if they were ‘a bunch of small fry.’”

“I just had to remind someone here that they need to know their place.”

“That makes sense, actually. I was wondering if you were being too harsh, but as her aunt it only makes sense you’d look out for your nieces position. I suppose the daughter of the lord cant go sneaking about in town like that. So you can act like a responsible aunt when you have to!”

I looked up at Mary and was taken aback. While before she had a look of excitement on her face, she was now staring at me. It was a look of pity. No, that’s an oversimplification. It was the kind of look you’d expect someone to give a three-legged puppy. A puppy innocent and clueless, happy to run about and carefree in life, cute and unaware that it’s going through life one leg short of a set, one card short of a full deck. But why was she looking at me like that?

After a moment she turned away. It may just be my imagination, but I swear I heard her mutter “...they’re cutest when they’re half-stupid anyways...” under her breath. What was that all about?

Before I could put any more thought to the matter Elizabeth came in, holding a tray with mugs of beer. Handing Mary and I a mug each, she grabbed one of her own before heading to a chair. Unlike earlier today when she had been enthusiastic and full of energy, she was now acting withdrawn. It was rather shocking, compared to how she was previously.

She had struck me as someone with a sense of resilience, but even someone like that might be cowed when scolded by a witch with as imposing of a reputation as Mary. Now I really have to wonder what Mary said to her. Despite being timid, or maybe because of it, I was no stranger to being yelled at.

Admittedly I would usually just zone out if someone spent too much time yelling at me and just get lost in my thoughts. I was rather good at that actually. I managed to zone out for practically three months straight during Marine Corps boot camp, although I still caught enough of it to view myself as an expert on the topic of being yelled at. So someone as strong-willed as Elizabeth doing a one-eighty like this always catches my interest. So…

Mary shaking my shoulder brought me back. Turning towards her, I found her previous excitement had returned

“So Rose, did you buy anything of your own while you were out? And how rude of me, I didn’t even comment on your hat! It fits you to a ‘t!’” She seemed a bit excited. Just a bit. She hadn’t even moved her hand from my shoulder after getting my attention. It’s comforting after everything I had been through during the day, so I’m not going to complain, but maybe I’m not the only one here prone to absentmindedness.

I leaned against the couch, gathering my thoughts before answering. Speaking of absentmindedness, I can’t believe I forgot what I managed to find, before Elizabeth and the goons of the Tailor’s guild dragged me off on that whole clusterfuck.

“You know that drink I mentioned previously?”

“The one you complain about not having? Every morning, while having your tea? I think you called it coffee.”

“That one. Well, the same dealer that had your coca happened to have another plant grown on the southern continent...”

As I continued, my voice got louder and more energetic. It had been a tough several weeks, but I finally had the one thing I had been missing the most from my home world.