-=- Ginsu Mage -=-

S1E5: Solitude and Company

-=- / // /// //// //// // / // \/ / -=-

The general nodded in sympathy at my pathetic excuse. “I understand. I’ll have the guards bring you back to your quarters.” He paused, then asked. “What’s COVID?”

While he didn’t understand the concept of a virus, he grasped the idea of disease quickly and insisted that he would see to the matter. Whatever, as long as it gets me some seclusion I’ll play the sick card.

The walk back to my room was the longest ever. My mask slowly crumbling with each step and existential dread roiling in my stomach. Why am I here? Is this even real? Does any of this even matter?

With the doors closed behind me and the guards stationed in the hall for “my protection”, I collapsed face first onto the bed. The distraction with General Barrit was nice and I had forgotten about the whole ‘summoned to another world’ thing for most of the day, but masks don’t last forever and mine was gone. I concentrated on clearing my mind, inhaling the faint aroma of wildflowers and sunlight through the heavy duvet. It was comforting on some fundamental level, reminding me of summers at my grandmother’s house when all laundry had been hung out to air dry.

About 99 ‘Ohm mani padme hums’ later, I heard the door open and someone enter the room with a rattling tray.

“Are you asleep?”

I raised an awkward arm over my back and let it fall. I recognised the voice as that of the Queen and had zero energy to wonder why she was in the room.

“Are you ill?” she asked, a slight edge of panic in her voice. “Uncle Di’nair said you had a disease, so I’ve brought medicine for you.”

Oh, great. Visions of leaches and other foul medieval nostrums swam through my mind. Eye of newt, toe of frog, if the medicine doesn’t kill you, you’ll live a bit longer.

She sat down next to me, causing the bed to shift and bringing my thigh in contact with hers. I refused to budge and focused on achieving oneness with the duvet. A sharp finger jabbed me hard in the ribs, causing me to grunt and wince away.

“You can’t hide away forever,” she said. “They won’t let you. You should roll over and take your medicine so we can eat and talk.”

“Fine,” I mumbled into the fabric, rolling over and presenting a pathetic face. “What sort of vile concoction do you have for me? Maybe something with a lot of mercury in it?”

“Mercury?” she said. “Why would there be poison in the medicine? Does medicine in your world contain mercury?”

"It's complicated," I muttered into the duvet. "A little bit is not bad for you but boosts the... bleargh. It doesn't matter."

Cracking an eye open, I peeked at her. A pretty woman with dark eyes and hair that flowed in loose curls to her shoulders sat next to me. It was hard to tell her age, maybe late 30s, early 40s, but she had a kind face and a few faint laugh lines around her eyes. And definitely curvy in all the right spots.

I cleared my throat uncomfortably. “Shouldn’t you have a chaperone while visiting a strange man in his bedchambers?”

“Why should I?” she retorted. “I am quite capable of defending myself against any unwanted advances.”

I let my eyes run across her and arched an eyebrow in disbelief. She was maybe 5’6” and weighed a buck thirty, tops. That confident voice said that she had no fear of me, so perhaps she knew some sort of fantasy martial arts or magic and was more dangerous than she looked.

I grabbed at a mask and they slipped through my mental fingers, falling into the abyss of my mind. I didn’t have the energy to hide mentally so I tossed an arm across my eyes.

“Sit up and drink this,” she said with a suggestion of steel in her voice, poking me in the ribs again.

“Okay, okay,” I surrendered, sitting up. The soft mattress conspired to push us together and increase my discomfort. “Gimme the medicine.”

She handed me a porcelain vial with some strange markings on it. I puzzled over them for a moment until I realised they were some sort of writing. Terror filled me, causing my hand to shake. I’m trapped in another world and illiterate.

“It’s a greater healing potion,” She said, indicating I should drink. “It can heal all wounds and cure anything except death. Curing death requires a suppository.”

It took a moment for her comment to register, then I burst out laughing, the tension of the day popped like a soap bubble and vanishing into nothingness.

“I like you,” I said, chuckling over the stupid little joke. “We were never properly introduced.”

Her voice took on a light mocking tone as she held out her hand to me. “Miranda Tatiana Navonne Fleming, eldest daughter of his majesty Aladas Gerard Fenton Fleming. It is my great pleasure to meet you, Magister Harold Johnson. Please call me Navon.”

“Eldest daughter?” I choked. “I thought you were the queen, because … I don’t know, because you were sitting next to…”

The faint lines around her eyes creased in amusement as I flailed for words.

“Proper table etiquette can be hard to understand for commo… er, foreigners,” Navonne said, poking me again. “Your manners at the breakfast table were shocking and provocative. You challenged Uncle Di’nair to a duel and he ignored it by calling you a child, then you served yourself and indicated that any challenges would be met with lethal force. It was quite the lively conversation after you left!”

“Oh gods,” I groaned, falling back onto the bed. “Can I just die now?”

“No, you may not.” She said sternly. “But you may drink your medicine and then have dinner with me.”

I sat up and removed the stopper from the vial, then sniffed curiously. It smelled strongly of mint. A quick peek inside revealed a slightly luminous liquid with bright golden flecks. I tossed it back and tasted mint and something spicy, like cinnamon.

“That wasn’t so bad, was it?” Navonne said, taking the vial from me and walking over to a serving cart that was next to a small table near the wall. “Now come and have some dinner and talk to me.”

“Any side effects I should know about?” I asked, walking over to the table and pulling out the chair for her. “Lycanthropy, growing an extra arm, bad gas?”

She smiled and sat, then indicated the seat opposite. “None. Well, almost none. If the person is badly injured they may slip into a coma until they are completely healed.”

“Should I suddenly lose consciousness, please feel free to take full advantage.” I joked.

Navonne blushed and laughed, then began to sparkle with the most beautiful light I had ever seen in my life. She glowed with fascinating psychedelic colours, and when she spoke the sound washed over me like a waterfall, erasing my consciousness.

*/// CATALYST DISCOVERED IN SYSTEM. ACTIVATING RECOVERY MODE ///*

-=- / // /// //// //// // / // \/ / -=-

[[ next chappie 20 nov ]]