Elsewhere
1
It was always a slow process getting up out of bed.
Hazel woke up. Pushed herself up with a grunt and scratched at her arm after properly shaking the tired from her body.
Coffee. Always coffee.
Pulled out the boiler. Pour the beans into a mortar.
Grinding beans. It was always a slow-going ritual, but it worked.
Pour ground powder into the water. Let it boil. Filter into a mug.
Let it cool til drinkable. Sugar. Sip. Breathe in the morning.
She dusted. inhaled deeply, tightened the straps to her right shoulder, and scratched gently against the stump where her arm used to be. and fixed her prosthetic into place.
She finished dressing after that. and then sipped the last of her coffee.
Hazel's life was…calm? No. Understimulating. Boring.
Retirement had been fine. She didn't get to choose though, and that's what made it less than ideal for her.
She tried not to reflect too deeply on it. The counselor said reflecting on the past didn’t help. “A foot in the past and the other in the future means there’s nothing in today” Or..something.
Calmly she sat down, dripping a solution of oil and egg white into pigment powder, and began to mix mull.
The hard part of painting had begun. Slowly the colored paint took its fluid form. she would scoop it away to let it dry into a cake of color.
Clearing the mind of..everything. It helped her keep her mind in the now. Now.
“Gah!” A knocking on her door “Does anyone know how finicky paint is?!” she let out an exasperated groan as she stormed her way to the door.
“Oh. Uriel.” She lowered her eyebrows. She’d expected it to be a nuisance, she didn’t expect someone she hadn’t seen in person for well over four months now. “Here I was thinking someone was coming to sell me something.”
The multi-positioned member of the academy’s faculty gave a slight smile at Hazel’s particular attitude. “No...I’m here. Sorry for not visiting with you as often as I should. You know how life is”
“Yeah yeah, come in, I’m tending to paint. I got cookies in a jar in the dining room if you like” Hazel motioned to her in as she turned “How’s the school? My record still holding, right?”
“Oh, it’s gonna be a long while before any of that can be handled.”
“oh good.”
“Sadly I’m here on a bit of business.”
Hazel began clearing off the table in a slightly more hasty fashion “Oh Goddess, what did I do?” she then corrected herself while looking over her shoulder “wait, what did I not do?”
“oh..it’s not you, Well, it is. This business is sort of not quite business. More- well…” Uriel waggled her hand in a see-saw fashion “I’ll just cut to the important part. Your staff has shown up in the school.”
Hazel froze up a bit and breathed, she knew this day was going to come. or at least something like it. “What's she like? She at least a good learner?”
Uriel raised an eyebrow “I haven’t even said a thing about the student, interesting you assumed they're a girl.”
“Oh it’s a foregone conclusion,” she said turning around the table “Have a seat, I suppose it’s time the secret came out”
Several Quiet minutes came to pass as Hazel positioned the jar of cookies between them and a teapot began its diligent work towards an eventual afternoon tea
“So. the accident.” She placed the hand of her prosthetic arm on the table. “I guess first things first...I lied. kinda. about my staff and hat, I mean.”
“The monster didn’t damage them I presume?”
“Yeah,” she took a sip of what was left of her coffee. “The Marauder only did the damage here.” she motioned with her head to the prosthetic. “I stayed for one night… realized what had happened to me, and then I left.”
“but not before leaving the staff?”
“Correct. You know how Golgothion Marauders Are…the corruption they can leave often attracts other creatures…and the healing process requires a lot of direct attention…I couldn’t stay to oversee it.”
“Ah, so you improvised.”
“As I often do.” the teapot let out its loud whine signaling the water was ready. “would you?” she motioned to the tea “Bags are in the cabinet. I got lemon, whickerstein, and Shades Breath”
Uriel did as requested, tea cups and saucers placed on the table as they continued to talk. “So. You left the staff just..there?”
“I couldn’t just let the village rot with the ambient corruption.” Hazel swirled a spoon in the tea cup.
“for ten-ish years?”
“Eleven years, but I’m not keeping track.” She breathed in “I needed a long-term enchantment with a slow and repeating release. Leaving the staff would act as the anchor for the enchantment and ward off any ill-intended idiots making them think a witch lived in the town.”
“And you just…left it to chance it wouldn’t be grabbed”
“Uriel..I’m almost offended you’d assume I’d be so wreckless” She positioned the open palm of her prosthetic hand on her chest in mock shock “I used a pendragon lock spell to keep it in place”
“Thats…I should have expected as much, that's a lot of magic to store in a single staff..you had to have accounted for anyone capable of a dispell?”
“A counter charm..if anyone was stupid enough the magic would have summoned me directly…I don't know what I would have done with how much losing my arm messed up my casting ability, but…yeah. I had an idea.”
Uriel looked on with a mix of awe and concern for her friend. “A multi-staged release purification spell, stacked with a pendragon lock, and a counteractive teleportation ward…Hazel…The only way you could have stacked that many involved spells on a single staff would have been..”
“Yeah. a Rubic.”
“Hazel, honey…”
“Don’t..I’m living enough with the consequences, last I need is you being sappy and sympathetic about my decisions”
“Why did you do it though? You could have just reported it.”
“I don't know..I wasn’t thinking clearly. Something about the place felt like I needed to take immediate action.”
“Right…So the pendragon spell. Who was it self-selecting for?”
“Simple…kinda. I met the leader. they all insisted on me going to dinner to celebrate the ‘felling of the beast” she motioned grandiosely with her arm. “didn’t like him. Just felt off.”
“That…okay sure”
“I decided if anyone who wasn’t me were to try and remove it it would need to be two people. someone who was a girl, or a woman. and further..they could only remove it unless they were motivated by something good…something that could only improve the village or the world.”
Uriel took that information in, processing it clearly and in accordance with the information she had “While I can’t say I would have done the same in your situation…leaving the village to fend for itself would have been worse.”
Hazel took a more enthusiastic sip of her tea with that “Knew you would. So tell me about who’s got my staff now, what's she like?”
“Roxanne Vangrove.” Uriel stated calmly “She’s average so far. Has potential though.”
“Average…pfft. They said that about us. now look where we are.”
Uriel Chuckled. “yeah, they sure did.” she took a bite of a cookie “I think she could benefit from some additional tutoring though. She’s from that village. Did a bit of research, Olmsteady is a farming village, mostly exports wheat, and corn if anything at all.”
Hazel nodded “Thought so, I’m sure someone at the school will help with that” She took a sip of her tea as she finished.
“Actually Hazel..I had you in mind”
Hazel choked and spit out a large portion of the tea in her mouth. enough wherewithal to turn her head to the floor, smacking the table and coughing as she took that in “I’m sorry..I..me? Tutor her?”
Uriel pressed “Why not?”
“I..Well.”
“You the one who’s complaining about not having anything to do.”
Hazel paused…putting her hand on the table drawing a line in thought “I…need to think on this..”
“Take your time…though while I’m here…how would you like to finish our game of emperor in person?”
“Now that” Hazel's worried expression vanished in the wake of a grin “ is a challenge I can’t turn down.”
The both of them retreated to the privacy of a study room.
For just a moment things felt like old times for Uriel and Hazel.
if only just.
<3 Hazel sounds like a true trouble maker, she'll like Roxanne and Cala :3
i like it, & i like that her first reaction isn't to out her students, and I guess this information is the reason she is so supportive in the meeting with Roxanne, i could see this placed before that meeting in the chapter order. Because isn't a lot of this going to repeat a lot of this talk with Roxanne x Hazel. The spacing will help, then itll be a refresher if it does and you will not have to dance around it if that's where the characters drag you in talking to each other,also then it will be something to anticipate.