Chapter 45: Are You Sure He Doesn’t Just Really Want Coffee?
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“Why? What did Mary do this time?” I asked.

 

“I didn’t do anything this time!” Mary shouted.

 

“It was a fair assumption. Your brother did call you in for an inquiry a while back.”

 

“That was to help with the investigation! Sure, we were ‘persons of interest’ for a while, but we definitively proved we didn’t blow up that building! And even if we did, that merchant was apparently trafficking in slaves so it would have been perfectly justifiable to do.” She was right, but the fact that we were suspected of wrongdoing just because a merchant’s manor blew up says a lot about her and, by extension, our reputation. Lord Porte cleared his throat loudly.

 

“As I said, even if the merchant was a criminal, the level of collateral damage was unacceptable! I’ll admit you probably didn’t do it, but do you really expect me to believe an explosion of that magnitude was done without magic?” He was beating a dead horse of course. We had already proven it to him. I literally found the remnants of spent cartridges and grenades in the blast site, which took no small amount of divination to locate, might I add. Whoever did it really didn’t hold back.

 

“So anyways, what are we being accused of now?” Mary asked.

 

“Nothing!” Her brother shouted back. “Just. Here. Take this.” He passed over a sealed letter, the wax closing it off pressed with the insignia of the kindgom crossed with a mages staff. The seal of the Royal court mage. Or was it Imperial? I’ve been avoiding politics as much as I can, so I can’t say for sure.

 

I broke the seal, unfolding the heavy, high grade paper. For a summons, the actual statement was rather short.

 

Apprentice Witch Rose Snyder:

By my authority as Chief court mage of the Kingdom of Appelia, you have been summoned to appear before the me due to concerns of the upsetting influence you may have upon the Kingdom due to your otherworlder knowledge. You are to bring samples of your new creations so that they may be judged. Failure to do so will result in dire consequences.

-Edwin Cooper, Chief Court Mage

 

And, in smaller print lower down on the page:

 

Ps. Bring at least 50 lbs unroasted. To be evaluated by the Chief Court Mage for safety reasons.

 

Come to think about it, I did read his memoir. I should have seen this coming, if I hadn’t thought he had died long ago. Who’d have thunk it, a Civil War veteran still alive in another world. I wordlessly handed the letter over to Mary, my mind an absolute blank. Only natural, the absurdity of the situation was… about normal, actually. While things had mostly been relaxed, there’d been one or two odd incidents that were about this level of weird, if not making me directly question the otherworldiness of, well, the other world. The fact that Mary had somehow recently sent a letter to my transdimensional stalker is something I’m still not sure how to process. Still not sure how she managed to send one back, but the reply was baffling enough that I’d rather just not dwell on it. At least she managed to get a girlfriend? But-

 

Mary’s hand clasped around mine set my thoughts back to the current issue. Right. A summons from the Chief Court mage. I gave Mary’s hand a squeeze in return. I’m amazed she puts up with me, though if I said that to her she’d just reply that I shouldn’t put myself down like that.

 

“Can’t we just ship the coffee normally?” I asked. The whole premise was kind of silly. It’s not like I brought the coffee from another world, it just hadn’t made it to this land until I recognized it. Well, not even, I just asked a trading ship. Hardly enough to warrant a summons.

 

“Don’t be daft.” Mary’s brother seemed to have less and less patience recently. With the incident over the winter I almost can’t blame him, but it seemed like he blamed it on Mary and I. “I know you two obsessive lovebirds can’t seem to hold yourselves back, even in public, but that’s no reason to act this stupid. The coffee is just a pretense.” In public? I haven’t done anything of the sort. Why does Mary look guilty though? Surely we haven’t done anything to “out there” in public. I tend to be kind of reserved if anything. Handholding near her family was already pressing what I was generally comfortable with, though I appreciated it all the same.

 

“That was once! And I know the coffee is just a pretense, no one would issue an official summons just over coffee...” I totally would if I were court mage. “...it related to her​?” Everyone froze.

 

Mary still hadn’t told me who exactly this “her” was, and I was too nervous to ask, but I got the impression she was bad news. I might need to ask her soon, especially if it was related to this summons.

 

“I can’t say for sure.” James answered. Lord James? Honestly we’d been pretty casual with him lately. I’m not at the level of calling him “brother-in-law” yet, but… hm, another thing we haven’t talked about, we really do tend to be isolated out here and the topic of how that whole thing works out in this world has never come up, I don’t think. At least not that I can recall. I held my warm cup of coffee up to my nose, inhaling slowly. That always tended to help me focus.

 

“James, just give me a straight answer.” Mary spoke, her hand grasping tighter around mine. I squeezed it back.

 

“There’s been… indications, for lack of a better word, that she may be active around the Capital again. Why she’d return there after all this time, I have no idea, but it’s being kept quiet, for obvious reasons. We can’t have all the stuck up courtiers freaking out.” He sighed.

 

“And you didn’t-!” Mary yelled out, before stopping herself. Her free hand tightened up, knuckles turning white as she inhaled loudly. “No, I understand.”

 

“An otherworlder, and one who became a witch of all things at that, making big waves with a new product is the perfect cover for summoning you to the Capital to investigate further. The King has to step lightly, especially with the commotion you caused last time, but something worded as a potentially punitive summons for your apprentice should keep the worst of the nobles there from objecting to your return. From what I’ve heard the Chief Court mage was willing to play along, loudly pretending to make a big deal about this new coffee product in the court.” Very clearly James didn’t read the court mages autobiography recently, if at all. I only went a few weeks without coffee, I can only imagine what’d it’d be like escaping from a war famed for a lack of coffee on his side just to end up in a world with no coffee available. But those thoughts, unbidden, don’t really fit the severity of the conversation.

 

Mary lets out a quiet shriek, her frustration palpable.

 

“I really don’t like my apprentice being dragged into this. It’s my responsibility to protect her, after all.” Both James and Elizabeth look on with sympathy in their eyes. That being said, they very clearly are well aware that this stopped being a normal “master-apprentice” relationship long ago. But she does like to bring it up every now and again, especially when-

 

“You probably should spend the evening packing.” James answered. “You can spend tomorrow night at our estate, and the ship leaves the day after.”

 

 


 

 

“So, who is ‘she?’” We’re in the bedroom, clothes laid out, mine on the far side of the bed by the window, hers closer to the door. Dealing with bandits? Absolutely terrifying, horrifying, but somehow I manage to power through. Asking Mary about this? It hasn’t actually come up recently, but in a way it’s far more terrifying. Avoiding emotional conflicts is still a bad habit of mine despite managing a perfectly adequate resolution previously. Admittedly with help from Mary. Touching on something this heavy scares the shit out of me, but at the same time it’s something I’m about to be dragged into. Scratch that, it’s something I’ve been dragged into by royal decree. Hmm, somehow that actually makes asking this easier. That way it’s less “emotionally upsetting thing from the past” and more “clear and present danger in the present. Funny how that works out.

 

“I mentioned my parents, right?” Her eyes crinkle at the corners, the pain of memories writ plain across her face.

 

“Yes.” They were otherworlders who met while trying to find a place to settle down.

 

“I mentioned how that- that hag murdered them, but I’ve held a bit back on that. You see,” she gathered her courage before spitting out. “She was my master, during my apprenticeship.”

 

“Oh, I’m so sorry"

 

“Don’t be. It’s just that I was so naive back then. I should have realized-” I rushed over to the other side of the bed, holding her close as she burst into tears. For someone who prided herself on being a good teacher, who cultivated such an imposing reputation in town, she had a side to her that was so incredibly down to earth, with all the good and bad it brought. Fickle, maybe even selfish, but so deeply caring.

 

“Thanks,” she sniffled while burying her face in my shoulder.

 

“Nothing to thank me for.” I replied. She’d usually hold me whenever I got a headache, or started feeling dizzy, there’s no way I wouldn’t do the same when she’s feeling sad. She stood there a while, holding onto me, rubbing her face into. Hey, wait, don’t wipe your nose on my blouse its. Well anyway. She eventually pulled back.

 

“We do need to finish packing. What a hassle.” She said.

 

“If we got a summons, do we need to like, dress up or anything.” I asked. Our clothing was well made, but quite frankly was rather plain. Hardly something you’d expect to see in a royal court. Mary laughed.

 

“What, us, dress up all fancy-like? Why would we ever do that? We’re witches you know. We do have a reputation to maintain.”

 

Announcement
And finally, a new chapter. It's only been what, like two years? I really kept second guessing myself on the rewrite, despite the fact that almost nothing changed besides a few paragraphs near the beginning and some slight changes in wording. That being said, I did update all the chapters on here with the rewrite first, which could possibly clarify things that might have been left too vague in the first draft.

 

I'll try to update consistently now that the new arc has started in earnest. Plus I need to get cracking on my other story since these two plotlines are technically related.

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