Jadvyga breezed through her exam just as she had expected. She accepted the congratulations from elder Aglaia with a smile and then excused herself, walking out of the hall and toward the western part of the Arcademy. There was still she had left to do after all.
A few minutes later, she had made her way over to the dorms of spell-casters. Walking up to the door, she held up one of the younger students, motioning inside. "Excuse me, but I’m looking for Beldia. Would you happen to know where she lives? She is one of the students graduating next week if that helps."
"Oh, then she’s on the top floor. Although I don’t know which room. You’ll have to ask up there."
"Thank you! I’ll do that then." Jadvyga nodded and then took the stairs, walking up to the seventh floor. Those spell-casters, there really were a lot of them. Compared to that, the dorms over in the potion makers’ complex were much smaller with its two-story building. It was a wonder that Beldia still managed to get lost every time she visited the complex.
Ah, she really hoped that she had managed to find the infirmary. Or at least somebody who brought her over there. The effect of the poison might reduce with time but considering for how long she had held onto the vine, it would take a few days to heal completely without help.
Thinking of that, Jadvyga hastened her steps. Reaching the top of the staircase, she again waved at one of the students. "I’m looking for Beldia. Is she still in?"
The student grimaced and motioned further down the corridor. "I’ll bring you over but you should be prepared."
"Prepared for what?"
"I have no idea what she did but probably some spell that went wrong. Can’t believe that she’s about to graduate. Well, I guess accidents happen."
Jadvyga’s brows furrowed. "What kind of accident?" She had heard about the kind of things that sometimes happened in the spell-casters’ complex and usually, they weren’t pretty. No, there had been talk of some students having to be carried out of the buildings feet-first. Not that Beldia’s situation should be as bad if she was in her own dorm room. In fact, it shouldn’t be that threatening but the thought was still anxiety-inducing.
"Well, her whole face is … oh, well, you’ll see. I can’t describe it."
Jadvyga felt a bad premonition when she heard that. This wasn’t about an accident while casting spells at all, was it? Ah, she probably shouldn’t have trusted her when she said that she knew the way to the infirmary. Most likely, she had searched around, not found it, and then had just come back here. And most likely, before washing her hands, she had touched her face. So now, the poison had spread and she would be looking like an overly ripe tomato.
She should have known. And she probably should’ve brought a potion to deal with it. Even if she got it wrong, it still would have been better to be prepared just in case. Thankfully, the poison of the vine didn’t have any lasting effects on humans and would only make her uncomfortable.
The student finally stopped in front of a door and knocked on it. "Beldia, there’s a guest for you!"
There was a groan from inside that sounded very much like it came from somebody who could not be bothered with whatever was going on outside of their door.
The student shrugged his shoulders and opened the door for her before he left with a nod.
Jadvyga tilted her head and looked inside, indeed finding a very sorry-looking Beldia inside. She sighed and went in, closing the door behind her before she went to sit down on the other side of the table. "I take it you didn’t find the infirmary."
Beldia flinched at the familiar voice, almost falling off the chair.
Jadvyga hurriedly reached over, grabbing her arm. "It’s alright. It looks nasty now and will hurt a bit but you don’t have to worry. The effects of the vine are something that can be dealt with. It’s not even that much trouble. A simple potion will take care of that. Even a first-year student could do that for you." Jadvyga chuckled at that but then hastily cleared her throat. Even if it wasn’t as bad as it could have been, Beldia was currently suffering the consequences. The last thing she needed was jokes at her cost.
Jadvyga smiled faintly and just focused on the actual problem. "In the future, you should be more careful. Here in the Arcademy’s garden, somebody did you the favor of sorting through the plants ahead of time. If it was highly poisonous, the elders wouldn’t be cultivating it where it is easily accessible and instead raise it in a private garden that is being kept locked. We have several of those and even in our last year, we can’t just walk in there.
"But that is only here in the Arcademy. There are a lot of poisonous plants out there and they’re not even rare. Most tend to look harmless too so it’s easy not to realize. So while we can deal with your current issue with no problem, you should stay vigilant in the future. If you want to go and pick flowers, better only take those you know for sure." She smiled kindly, hoping that Beldia would take her warning to heart. In the last years, she had gotten to know her as somewhat of an airhead. That kind of person was prone to running into trouble like this. Warning her ahead of time was really the only thing she could do.
Beldia hurriedly nodded but didn’t think too much about it. Anyway, she wouldn’t even have tried if not for wanting to confess her feelings to Jadvyga. After they were out of the Arcademy, why would she go around and pick flowers? Who would she even pick them for?
Speaking of which … Her gaze darted around the room. She really didn’t have any business thinking about this but seeing that she had already done the worst she probably could, she might as well give it another try, right?
Anyway, she was here, Jadvyga was here, and she was even smiling so nicely. This was like gifting her one more opportunity! Why wouldn’t she try and take advantage of that? Even if it went wrong, she at least had a good excuse this time, being poisoned and all.
Beldia reached over to the vase on the windowsill that held a bunch of sorry-looking twigs. Originally, she had wanted to put her spell on one exactly like that and had only tried to use that poisonous vine because she hadn’t had time to look for one. Now though, the ones she had practiced with were right there so she could start directly.
She pulled one of them out of the vase and held it between her fingers, trying to focus on the spell. Her magic swirled around her fingertips, engulfing the twig and making it straighten up a bit. Beldia’s eyes widened faintly. It was working! It was actually —
Just then, the twig snapped in half and the spell collapsed without her goal being achieved. Beldia stared at it, wanting to kick herself below the table. She had been so excited, she had forgotten how brittle this thing was after abandoning it in the vase and grabbed it a little too hard when victory seemed at hand.
If it hadn’t caused her to look even more demented, she really would have liked to slam her forehead on the table right now. Seriously, how was she even able to do so much wrong? This was the simplest plan for a confession she had ever made! She had taken everything into consideration she could think of and yet … yet, even attempt fifty-two had failed. It seemed she really was hopeless.
Jadvyga watched with a smile, the corners of her eyes crinkling in amusement. She could very well imagine what this was about. Well, looking at the bright side, if she had still needed any kind of confirmation that the words on that paper slip had been meant for her, this would be it. Not that there had really been any doubt.
She thought for a moment and then pulled the paper out of her pocket. She unfolded it and put it on the table, even going so far as to smooth it out. "I found that in the garden this morning. I was wondering if you might have lost it."
Beldia’s eyes widened and she had the urge to grab the paper and throw it somewhere or maybe eat it so Jadvyga wouldn’t see it. But then again, she had found it and undoubtedly read it so there was no reason to do that. In the end, she hurriedly shook her head. It hadn’t been her! Definitely not! She didn’t want Jadvyga to think it was her. Then she’d also know that she had made a horrible disaster out of her attempt at confessing. She didn’t have the kind of courage to take that blow.
Jadvyga raised her brows but seeing the panic in Beldia’s eyes, she could imagine that she was worried she would take it wrong after her failed attempt in the garden before. Actually, Jadvyga didn’t care at all. Even though it might not have worked out, it was amusing to watch and quite heartwarming how hard Beldia tried.
She smiled and picked the piece of paper back up, clearly in a good mood. "No? Ah, such a pity. I think it is really romantic. And a bit brave, to be honest. About thirty percent of the plants in the garden are poisonous as you had to find out. To pick a flower and try to offer it to the person you like … you really need guts for that."
Beldia’s gaze darted around, wondering if this was something she should take as a compliment or an admission that she really was an idiot. After all, she should’ve known this. It wasn’t like she hadn’t visited the garden before to see Jadvyga.
Meanwhile, the person in question waved the piece of paper in the air and motioned out of the window. Clearly, if she waited for Beldia to finally manage to take the next step, she’d wait until her hair turned white. She wasn’t quite willing to do that no matter how entertaining Beldia’s attempts were so she’d have to help this along. "Well, I just finished my last exam and the results were good. I have an offer to work as a potion maker in the city not too far from the Arcademy. It was dependent on my results but I think they are good enough to pass. So if you want to see me after we’ve graduated, you can always come over. I’d be happy to see you."
"Really?" Beldia immediately revived, not even bothering about her red face anymore.
Jadvyga nodded. "Of course! In the Arcademy, we had so much to do and it wasn’t always convenient to come over. But I guess things will be different outside so if you can, come by and visit me. I’d love to see you more often in the future."
Beldia’s eyes shimmered. This invitation … she never would have dreamed of getting it. She felt like rushing out and going to give every one of the elders of the Arcademy a smooch just for allowing her to study here and meet Jadvyga in the first place. Today had to be her lucky day!
She looked around, feeling like this was the perfect chance. She just knew it was. Before, she had always tried to create one but now, she was given one. If she just said something nice now and told her that she would love to see her more often as well and, in fact, wanted to be more than a mere visitor or friend, then surely, there was a chance that Jadvyga might actually say yes.
She spotted a small stone that she had apparently carried inside from the garden. She hastily leaned down and picked it up, hiding it in her hand. A confession had to come with a gift. At least, that was what her guide had said and everybody else that she had asked. And she had asked a ton of people. They couldn’t all be wrong.
Beldia closed her eyes and focused, thinking of the spell that she had learned in the last year. This one wasn’t as difficult as the one with the flower but the result should be good enough. Anyway, she couldn’t be picky right now.
Her magic swirled around her hand once again and this time, there was nothing to break. She felt the surface smooth out and her heart raced. It might have worked. It really might have worked. When she cracked an eye open and glanced at the tiny thing in her hand, she indeed had what she needed.
Her eyes went wide and she thrust her hand out toward Jadvyga, presenting the little stone to her as if her brain was running on auto-pilot. "Shi… shiny rock." With that, the words already left her. Unfortunately, she hadn’t prepared a speech for that. She couldn’t say 'a beautiful rock for a beautiful woman', could she? And while 'shiny rock' worked with what she had just created, she couldn’t very well call Jadvyga shiny, could she?
She looked at the other witch with a lost expression, making her laugh in response.
"Oh, a shiny rock! Is it for me?"
Beldia nodded awkwardly, handing it over.
"My, it’s very shiny! You could say it shines like my eyes when they’re filled with hope, couldn’t you?" She blinked at her, stunning Beldia even further into silence.
That was actually a very good comparison. Why hadn’t she thought of that?
Jadvyga put the shiny stone into the pocket where she had already kept the slip of paper and then leaned closer. "Well, do you have something to write?"
Beldia wasn’t sure why she would ask but she immediately jumped to her feet, almost stumbled over them, and then barely managed to catch herself on the edge of the bed behind her. She laughed her own clumsiness off and then rushed to get her a sheet of paper and a feather.
Jadvyga didn’t comment on her lack of gracefulness and just picked up the feather, dipping it into the small vial of ink that followed after and then started to write. "This is the address of the potion shop that I will be working at. I will start my first shift in two weeks if everything goes well.
"I will only be working until the early afternoon, probably about three. After that, I’m off. If you want to, you can come by and ask for me. I will show you where I live then. It’s not far from the shop and that way, you can just come by to my home instead of having to hang around the shop. I don’t think they’d like it if you do. At least not for long.
"Anyway, if you don’t want to wait that long and instead want to see me before that, I’m still in the dorms until the end of next week. I wouldn’t mind if you took me out on a date after the graduation ceremony, maybe." She turned the paper around and pushed it toward Beldia with a smile before putting the feather down next to it. "Well, think about it. You know where the dorms are so you can come over and tell me anytime or we can talk after the ceremony. Anyway, I would understand if it was too soon for you and you wanted to prepare a little further so don’t feel pressured. I know you will also have other things going on.
"Here is my address for the time after that. In exchange … would you lend me that book you had in the garden with you before? It looked really interesting and I’d love to have a look at it to pass some time while I’m still trapped in the dorms. I hope you wouldn’t mind?"
Beldia had no idea what book she was talking about. In her head, Jadvyga’s voice telling her to take her out on a date after the graduation ceremony was still repeating over and over again in her mind. She just nodded with a blank look, not even sure if she was answering that offer or maybe something else. Who knew? It kind of felt like she was dreaming anyway because after everything going so wrong, things couldn’t suddenly go this right.
"Thank you!"
The book was lying on the windowsill so Jadvyga helped herself to it and then walked out of the room with a bright smile. "Oh, if you come by later today, I could make a potion for your face." She cheerfully called out over her shoulder and then walked off, not waiting for a response. Instead, she rushed back to her own dorm room, hastily opening the book and leafing through the pages, wondering if she would really find what she was looking for.
One by one, she took out all the small pieces of paper that were spread between them, smoothing them out and making a small stash. Even up until now, she still hadn’t gotten a real love confession from Beldia even though the other witch had tried so often. In that case, she’d have to make do with all the drafts for the one she had wanted to make today. Anyway, she didn’t mind whether it was said out loud or written on a piece of paper. Love was magical, no matter how you expressed it.
