Unmaking Percy

Part IV - III, continued (The Parted Glade)

"Oh gods, oooh gods, oh, blackbirds in pies and ducks on ducking stools" Myrtle breathed out at once, locking her hands on her hips and squeezing her stomach between them. "Yep, here come the cramps."

"All these nights I've slept with one eye open, watching out for her coming" Valeria said, her voice flat and her eyes looking straight ahead to nowhere, "and you summoned her with a sneeze?"

"I didn't mean to" Myrtle protested. "Apparently she was looking for an easy way to me, with a gap or something, and I just happened to be thinking of her, and how she was taking her sweet fucking time to show herself again, and then I sneezed. Aow."

"And why did you offer her tea?"

"What? Nothing in this world is ever made worse by good manners. Isn't that something you taught your charges? If it isn't, it should be."

"She tended to prioritise survival over good manners in her curriculum" Evans smiled as he carefully washed out their mugs. The one the enchantress had used, Percy noticed, he hesitated before washing.

"It's true" Valeria agreed. "Can't be polite if you're dead. Cursed by the side of a river, by a sorceress. For being insolent."

"Myrtle" Percy said suddenly, "how could you be so quick to agree when she told you to work three times faster? I've seen you go at it. Any faster and you'll give the world vertigo. No one has the energy for that, not even you."

"Well, of course not. I know I can't go much faster than this. But this is what we used to do, back when I was in service. You nod and say of course, ma'am, and then you keep doing whatever you were doing before. Most of the time they don't notice. Usually the reason they ring for their servants in the first place is for something else entirely."

"Such as?"

"To be reminded they have servants. And once they have that, they're fine again for a while."

Valeria plastered both her hands on her face and gave a muffled grunt.

"Myrtle, you can't count on that now. This isn't your average employer. You won't get away with things like that."

"Yeah. That's what they used to tell me back when I worked at the duke's, too" she smirked. "And look at where he is now, or will be soon! I envy the girls who stayed back there. They'll get to whack him with a carpet beater. Lucky sods."

Myrtle chatted unbounded for the rest of the evening. Valeria and Evans listened as they put away the crockery, doused the fire, and headed to the hut by the sawmill, sometimes nodding, sometimes shaking their heads, sometimes sharing knowing smiles that Myrtle was quick to notice, and just as quick to ignore.

Percy did not speak, but he did not listen, either. He was wholly engrossed by the strange task of trying to imagine himself in the sorceress' place, doing what she did. He could not do it. While she had been there, not once had his fear been lessened by thinking that, if he felt threatened again, he now knew he had magic of his own. Such a thought did not belong to him. He tried to grasp it in his mind, but it was all currents with no water, songs with no sound. And the absence of it lingered. Astred had taken such care to tell Percy of the gaps within him that he now felt nothing but their emptiness, stretching impossibly wide.

Laying on his bedroll, he turned this way and that. A sliver of moonlight brushed his hand, and he noticed Evans opening the door and stepping out.

Percy was out of the hut in an instant. He saw Evans sitting cross-legged by the river, awash in moonlight. This time, Percy announced his approach, going out of his way to step on any leaves and branches he could find. Evans jumped a little as he heard him, but then smiled, instead of saying he would rather be left alone – as Percy knew he would, if he so wished. Percy's mind eased a little.