Highwater and Glass

The Mourning Mist, Chapter 5 - Oran

Oran reached down to grab Eloise's hand and pulled the squire to her feet. He remembered the first chion he had seen in his life. He was eight. He'd been invited to go hunting with his cousin and uncle. And while he had heard the large insects lived in the swamp, it was another thing to stumble upon them in person. His cousin was bitten badly on his leg. He still had an impressive scar that spiraled down his shin to show for it.

Eloise was shaking off shock of the attack. She looked down, wide-eyed at the two curled up chion halves leaking guts into the earth. She then felt around for her belongings and those that belonged to Sir Tristane. She was covered in mud.

"I apologize for my squire," said Tristane. "I tried to instill in her greater sense of awareness."

"No apology necessary," said the Archmage. "Her attention was directed towards the greater threat of the omenaiad. As was mine. We cannot expect our charges to be perfect."

"No," Tristane agreed, "Only to remember any part of the training we provide."

Oran observed Eloise with pity. She was clearly embarrassed by Tristane's harsh words. Worse, she seemed desperate to clean his belongings despite the wet filth dripping off her arms.

He remembered a spell he learned early in his training. It was effective as a cleaning spell, though its true purpose was to return stolen earth from whence it came.

"Here, allow me," he said to her.

Eloise nodded and Oran placed his hand on her back. Mud caked to his hand. He then held out his palm in front of him so Eloise could see it. Horus watched him curiously as he did this.

"Tana Shae Mana," he said. It was a simple, low-energy spell, so the words came easy. The mud dripped from his hand until his palm was clean. The same occured on Eloise's back, shoulders, legs, and hair. Eloise looked herself over, impressed by the results.

"Thank you, Oran," Eloise said to him.

"My pleasure," he replied.

She opened her mouth as if she were going to say something more to him, but was interrupted by the words of Sir Morris Tristane.

"Remember girl, magic doesn't solve every problem. You must be vigiliant."

"Yes, Sir Tristane," Eloise replied dutifully.

"Come here," he barked. "You best not have misplaced anything in the mud."

Eloise did as she was told, joining Tristane and following behind the Archmage as they traveled east along the shoreline path. Horus drifted back beside Oran, lowering his voice as he often did when he wished to gossip.

"What was that about?" He asked leadingly.

"It would appear Sir Tristane is more of an ass than I initially assessed him to be," replied Oran.

"That's not what I meant," said Horus. "I mean you and Miss Glass. Are you flirting with her?"

Oran was taken aback.

"No."

"Because it looked like you were flirting with her."

Oran was confused. Was Horus jealous that he was giving Eloise any attention? All he was doing was extending the sort of kindness he would hope to receive in return. That wasn't flirting. It was just being a decent human being.

"Well, I wasn't trying to flirt," he said. "I'm simply being nice to her. She looks like she could use a friend."

"How charitable of you," said Horus. He turned around and walked backwards for a moment. "If you start giving anything else away, remember I was already first in line."