[Coolly, Healthy]
I stopped into the pub to give my girl a kiss, and to tell her that Sparky was home. Then I continued my walk down the road past the theater right to the clinic. Bhizzie came running over right away as soon as I entered.
“Do you need to see Lottie, right away? She’s with a patient but if it’s an emergency, I'll interrupt her.”
“No thank you, Bhizzie, I was actually looking for Arjun.”
“Arjun is in Lottie’s office, you can go right back, you know the way. How is Draco feeling?”
“He’s completely healed and giving magic lessons to Opal as we speak.”
“Ahh, Opal is just about the sweetest little girl I’ve ever met, and quite a talented healer.”
“I can’t disagree, we’re so lucky to have her at the store. If I ever had a sister, I’d want her to be just like Opal.”
Just then a patient entered and Bhizzie hurried back to her desk to help him, so I walked down the corridor to Lottie’s office and Arjun was indeed sitting there waiting.
He jumped up when he saw me.
“Is Draco alright?”
“Yes he is, one hundred percent fine as a matter of fact. Opal just finished healing him this morning.”
“That’s a relief, is everyone else alright? I mean you don’t often stop to chat, can I help with something, heal someone?”
“No I’m actually here because I made you a promise the day you arrived, do you remember?”
“No, I don’t, what promise?”
“Well if you don’t remember I guess I don’t have to keep it.”
“Hey, a promise is a promise, you have to keep it.”
“Someone came to town.”
“Oh gods tell me it’s not my mother.”
“No it’s not your mother I promise.”
“Phew, that’s a relief, wait you don’t mean he’s back do you? Sparky’s here.”
“Yep he’s at Enigmatic Parchments.”
“Great I’ve got to go see him, I’ll just leave a note for Lottie.”
He grabbed my hand and we portaled to the bookstore.
“Sparky, I can’t believe it after two hundred years I’ve finally found you and you haven’t changed a bit. Still as skinny as ever I see. What happened to you, why do you have your location cloaked?”
“Ahhh, Arjun, yes it’s been quite a while. I’ve come here to study and it works best without guests. That's why I have my location cloaked.”
“But you turned it back on briefly, before you left.”
I was about to say something but after the sharp look that Sparky gave me, I decided to wait and talk to him privately about it.
“Yes I turned it back on briefly so some colleagues could meet with me in the field.”
“Well I’m glad you did, I never would have found you otherwise. And you have two apprentices. Everytime I asked you to take me as an apprentice you always said that you had no time for an apprentice and now you have two.”
“Yes well times have changed and I thought perhaps having an apprentice might help further my studies. But you’ve met Rose, she spends so little time here it’s like I only have one. Plus Opal is so diligent she just quietly comes in and efficiently does her work.”
“I’m sure you’re quite proud of Rose. She single-handedly saved the town, plus the clinic she built.”
“That was all a group effort, Arjun, Lottie and Ronja did all of the planning on the clinic. I just hooked them up with the builder Orin and the trouble with the cartel. Everyone played a part to keep the town safe. You helped save Draco’s life which I haven’t even thanked you for. So thank you so much.”
“No it’s me who should be thanking you and the town, you’ve opened your town to me and made me feel welcome. You took the time to show me all around and you even suggested that I volunteer here. I might have packed up and headed for home if it hadn't been for your intervention Rose.”
“No you give me too much credit Arjun, I'm sure you would have waited for Sparky to return even without the volunteer job.”
Ensure your favorite authors get the support they deserve. Read this novel on Royal Road.
“No Rose I was feeling pretty low until you took Lottie, Opal and I to Juliet’s World to practice healing. I was sure at the time when I returned home I was going to stop being a healer. But I’ve learned so much since I’ve been here. You took it upon yourself to help me become stronger, to grow my magical capacity. Before the war of course but that’s understandable you arranged all those farms to be built in a matter of days.”
“Yes, well, I’ll let you two catch up, I'll just be in the back if you need me.”
“She really really is remarkable Sparky, you are so lucky to have her.”
“Yeah, lucky, right.”
I closed the door and that was the last thing I’d heard for about thirty minutes, until I was summoned back out, into the store.
“So you took him to Juliet’s World for a little tour did you?”
“Lottie needed to test the healing bakes that Lily was making for her but she had no patients, Arjun was always hanging around waiting for you to come back, sometimes he’d come twice a day. Then he mentioned that he was a healer so I introduced him to Lottie as he seemed to know nothing about how the body worked. So I jumped them and after watching Arjun partially heal an older lady I had the thought that maybe Opal could do it because on her first day of lessons from me she already had a greater capacity then I did. So I jumped back here and asked her to try, and she completely healed the woman that Arjun had partially healed. So you could say that we wouldn’t have known about her healing abilities if I hadn’t brought Arjun there.”
“Then you suggested that he stick around and volunteer at the clinic.”
“No, not that he sticks around, but if he was he might just as well do something for the people of Wyldwood. That’s when I told him to volunteer with Lottie, Opal does it too and she loves it. When I told her we had to start writing tomorrow, I could just see her deflate. I promised to make it fun for her but she really loves healing people and she’s made great strides, especially for an eleven year old girl. I could boost her magic twenty five percent and I think I should but I waited to hear what you think.”
“First if she wants to heal instead of write, I’m fine with that, Rose. I just didn’t want her to get stuck doing portal drawings for the rest of her life. I wanted her to branch out. She did branch out, that’s what is important. Arjun was completely stuck on being a healer because it was the only kind of magic he was ever taught. It’s no wonder that he wanted to quit.”
“Really, you are okay with Opal not writing, she’ll be so happy I’ll tell her when I get home. What about the magic lessons do you want to take over or let Draco teach her?”
“Does he mind doing it?”
“No, I think he loves teaching her, but I’ll check with him if you want.”
“Yes, ask him, it will be better for Opal to be exposed to as many different types of magic and teachers as possible. Tomorrow before you come in, teach her how to gather magic.”
“What about boosting her power like I did with you and Draco?”
“Yes, do that too.”
“What about Arjun? Do you want me to boost his magic and show him how to gather?”
“I suppose, but he must solemnly promise to never tell anyone else about either of the techniques. He always was a good kid, but he became obsessed with becoming my apprentice. I didn’t have time for an apprentice.”
“I somehow negated your cloaking location spell, when I removed the curse, didn’t I? I’m really sorry, you wouldn’t have been on their radar if it wasn’t for me.”
“First, not feeling like I was starving was worth it. It’s my own fault that I didn’t check my own maintenance spells. When I finally did I noticed and restored it. It’s not on you but on me. Now don’t you have lands you need to manage?”
“I just need to ask some people to be on the board to manage the estate lands and buy the vineyards. But the farms revert to the town in eleven months and the farmers don’t need my advice, I know nothing about farming.”
“Except your friend Woody seems to know just how to make things grow.”
“Elma, how would you like to sit on the board of the estates foundation?”
“I don’t know Rose, how would you like to sit on your dead grandfather? Sounds like fun doesn’t it.”
“Come on, you know I don’t mean that kind ‘board’ check the dictionary on the Kobo.”
“ ‘a group of persons having managerial, supervisory, investigatory, or advisory powers’ you want me in such a group?”
“Certainly your people helped defend it, did they not. We wouldn’t have even known of the threat if it hadn't been for Ashley. The entire army may very well have reached Wyldwood, if it wasn’t for the warning, then the magic that caused a new growth forest in the middle of the road, and the drought spells. So what do you say? This way you will stand for the trees and have your say about what happens to the land.”
“Yes, I’ll check with Woody to see if it’s allowed?”
“Of course it’s allowed, how will we know your opinion if you don’t tell us? I’m not saying that the board will agree with everyone of your opinions but isn’t it at least better to have your say. To give the board another point of view to consider.”
“Woody says yes you are right we would like to have a sit on the board.”
“Good, now while we wait for the first board meeting, think about ways that the land can be developed best for affordable housing and sustainability with an eye towards petitioning the town to expand its borders to include the estates.”
“We will, Rose, we will have a debate among ourselves and try to come up with some suggestions for the board. My first suggestion is that we get rid of the term board and call it something else like Alliance of Directors or Society of Directors or League of Directors. This would keep bigoted language out of the charter of the foundation itself.”
“There you go, see you are already making a contribution. That is a point of view that no human would have even considered before. So you bring that up at the first meeting, then you’ll take a vote. It may pass, it may not. But if you give a passionate argument you are more likely to sway other members to vote your way.”
“All the other trees agree, it is a good argument.”
“Yes they would because they are all looking at it from the same point of view. That’s exactly why I want you to be part of the deciding group, so that all sides are heard, all perspectives. Honestly I can’t think of one reason to say that the Board is better than the League, but perhaps another of the members may then you’ll have a discussion about it and try to come to a compromise. A decision that neither you nor the dissenting party will be happy about, but one that you both can live with. For example Sparky hates ebook readers and would ban them from the store, but he now looks at it from your perspective and allows all trees who come to the store to bring their Kobos. But only trees are allowed to do this. See, neither side gets exactly what they want but it’s something both sides can live with for now.”
