Bagsy Beetlehorn and the Corvid Trials (The Bagsy Chronicles 2)

The Mark

Greenda would be in the infirmary for a few nights. She had three broken ribs, a dislocated shoulder, and a broken leg as well as some organ damage that had to be fixed. The internal bleeding was nothing to sniff at, either. Nurse Jones said she was lucky the brain damage she'd sustained was the kind that a potion could cure, instead of needing an invasive spell restoration.

Bagsy was sitting next to Greenda, making a get-well card from coloured paper and stickers as there wasn't time to go and buy one, and seeing if the other players would come to the hospital wing to sign it.

Greenda woke up, looking very groggy, and turned her brown eyes to her. 'Bagsy?' she slurred, one side of her face sagging from the magical pain-killing spells Nurse Jones had cast on it.

Bagsy smiled. 'Last time I checked, yep. Unless I've been replaced by a doppelganger.'

Greenda smiled back. 'You doing okay?'

'My shoulder hurts,' she said. She hadn't wanted to trouble Nurse Jones when he was sorting Greenda's treatments so she'd kept quiet about it. Maybe tomorrow she'd stop by and ask for him to take a look. It felt odd and didn't move quite right. 'That was one big fall you took, Greenda.'

'I really wanted the snitch...' Greenda sighed. 'I remember missing it. That feeling was worse than hitting the ground.'

They sat in silence.

'I'm sorry for avoiding you,' Greenda said at last. 'It's... stupid, really. I figured that you were probably bored of me and would be better off making friends with students your own age.' She pursed her lips. 'It wasn't just that, though. I thought that if I stopped talking to you, if I stood up for myself and if I caught the snitch, then Emmeline would talk to me again and I'd feel better. Better about... everything.'

'What don't you feel good about?'

Greenda swallowed. 'Something I did. Bloody hell, everything hurts,' she hissed. 'What's wrong with me?'

'You've broken, like, a bunch of bones,' Bagsy said. 'You've had some spells and ointments put on them, but Nurse Jones said it'd hurt until the healing was done.'

'He was right,' Greenda grimaced.

'What did you do?' Bagsy asked in a small voice. Something had gone down between Greenda and Emmeline, and she wanted to know what.

Greenda sat still, maybe from pain, maybe from the question. 'Something not good, Bagsy. I thought... I thought I knew something about someone. I thought I'd found out some grand conspiracy, some terribly immoral action. I thought I was helping someone who deserved to know the truth.' She shook her head ruefully. 'Somehow, I only ended up hurting innocent people.'

Bagsy listened patiently, not understanding what Greenda was saying in the slightest, but nodding along politely all the same. If Greenda didn't want to be specific, even if it was killing Bagsy not knowing, she wouldn't push her. At least, not right then.

'Emmeline is right. I don't deserve forgiveness...' Greenda's eyes glistened. 'I still can't bring myself to admit to her what I did, even though we both know the truth. I couldn't even describe it accurately to you, just then. I twisted it all around to make myself sound less in the wrong...'

Emmeline walked into the infirmary and Greenda quickly wiped her eyes, quieting what she'd been saying.

'Come to mock me? There's nothing you can say I haven't already told myself,' Greenda sniffed. 'I should have caught it. Instead, all I caught were a bunch of broken bones and-'

'I'm sorry,' Emmeline cut over her. Greenda and Bagsy looked at her in stunned silence. Emmeline, just now noticing Bagsy sitting there, stammered. 'I'm sorry for telling you to fly faster. I shouldn't have. It wasn't safe. It's my fault you were injured.'