Bookworld Online: Marsh Man

Jinelle went to her aunt and leaned against her, since the both of them needed the support. Pavinca just stared at me. I motioned for Gella to start walking again and they didn't stop us from leaving with crates full of what they thought was a very scary and very powerful resource. Since no one else except us knew what it actually was, there was no danger of anyone coming to my dorm to steal it.

I hid it in a side room after carrying it all up the stairs to our room. The dorm monitor only watched us with mild interest as we made a couple of trips with them. She didn't even ask me what it was. When I passed her with the last crate, I stopped and took out a handful of gold crowns to hand to her.

“Thank you for your discretion.” I said and she smiled warmly at me. I took the last crate up to the room while Gella brought the empty hand cart back to the testing auditorium, since we didn't know where it actually came from. When she came back to the room, she stated that they were loading the extra chairs onto it.

The next morning were the combined exams for Basic Enchanting and Runes with the practicals in the afternoon. I was going to have a very easy time with the practicals, since I could carve enchantments blindfolded. The written exams were going to be a lot more difficult, since I didn't have any experience with the runes and enchantments that the teachers had used for the last six months.

I quickly went to the table and Gella dug out Vanessa's copied notes for the class. She spread them out for me and we went through them to sort by importance, power requirements, and effects. We grouped similar and complimentary runes and enchantments together, just to make it a less daunting task than it actually was. The best part was that there weren't a lot of singular use runes for us to learn and most needed to be grouped.

I wasn't surprised when Hanna nestled on a pillow on the floor between my legs. She had become a little clingy after last night and did her best to not annoy me with it. I appreciated that, so I would occasionally pet her hair as I studied with Gella and discussed the merits of each enchantment. I was happy to use the same learning technique that we had discovered while studying for the Advanced Potions exam, as was Gella.

We stopped briefly to eat supper and then continued to study. Farra brought us scrap pieces of wood to practice carving on, as well as extra papers for us to practice drawing the different enchantments. By the time we were ready to go to bed, Gella was quite confident that she could handle anything put in front of her.

I was sure that since it was the basic course, they wouldn't give us anything too difficult, since most of the students wouldn't be continuing the class next year. There wasn't a lot of interest from the other girls in the class I attended, not even from Vanessa. She only did well because of me. When I was gone, her interest had waned. She was back to being the worst in the class, so I blamed her new friends for discouraging her.

Gella and Farra pat Hanna's head and went to the spare bed with Jill, making Hanna quite happy. She didn't comment on getting to spend the night with me and climbed into my bed with only a nightgown on.

I stripped off and climbed in as well. “We're going to sleep.”

“I know, my lord.” Hanna said and snuggled into my side, kissed my neck, and pretended to go right to sleep.

I relaxed my body and closed my eyes, waiting for her to make a move. Half an hour later, her hand lightly stroked me under the blanket. She didn't try to move down or to do more than that, though. I wasn't sure what she was doing, since I hadn't had anyone do that to me before. When my body couldn't fight off the gentle stimulation, her grip changed and her other hand caught everything I let out.

Without a pause, Hanna lifted the hand to her mouth and drank it all down, licked off her palm like it was the tastiest thing she had ever eaten, then wiped her hands on her nightgown and actually went to sleep.

I opened my eyes and looked at her, then turned my head to look at the others. Gella had a smile on her face and Farra was fighting to not laugh at my expression. Jill shrugged her shoulders at me, because she apparently didn't know that was going to happen.

I sighed and closed my eyes again, then went to sleep. Tomorrow was going to be a day for several people to remember, namely the two teachers, especially if they let us enchant whatever we wanted for the practical exam. I doubted they would let me bring my own items, so I would have to make due with whatever they had. If it was insufficient for the purpose, I would have to speak up and say so.

The next morning came early and Jill gave us a shared bath that we all shared the scrubbing. I seemed to have used up a lot more time scrubbing the others, probably by design. They seemed to be sneaking around and getting me to do more when it came to them. I didn't mind, since we did have some great sex the other night.

Gella and I dressed properly and went to the testing auditorium for the written exam. Once again, no one seemed to want to look at me and avoided me. I thought that was normal, until I saw some of the guilty faces. I glanced at Gella and she nodded before moving off to discreetly talk to the teachers. When she came back, she whispered that some of them felt bad about abandoning me and the rest thought I shouldn't be there.

I nodded slightly and we were ordered to go to our seats and prepare for the exam. Most of the students took out measuring instruments and things to help them, which Gella and I didn't. We didn't need them and a lot of the students saw our lack of helpful items. Some smiled in satisfaction, mostly the guys, and the rest looked sad.

I didn't correct their mistake in thinking I was lacking preparedness as Mage Heather Montgomery walked around to deposit the exam papers face down onto everyone's desk. Black sat on the desk at the front of the room and didn't speak until his wife came back to stand beside him.

“Some of you are going to have an easy time with this exam, especially those that actually followed along with their notes.” Black said and Heather nodded. “Some of you are going to be out of your depth.”

I smiled slightly when he avoided my gaze and Heather looked right at me. In a sudden bout of inspiration, I smiled fully and winked at her. She immediately blushed and turned her head away.

“You may begin.” Black said and we all flipped the papers over.

I read the first question about the damage rune and why to add its use in an enchantment, and to state where. I had to clamp my mouth shut to not laugh out loud, because even as a child, I could have answered this question. Just for fun, I wrote out the answers and also added the rune drawing and beside that I added the same basic enchantment drawing we used in class for the wooden dagger.

I moved on to the next question and the next, embellishing as much as I could and added in both the rune drawings it referred to and also any classroom enchantments that the runes used. Because of that, it took me nearly as long as everyone else to finish the exam.

Both Black and Heather looked satisfied that I had seemed to struggle more than everyone else with how much I was writing, until the exam time ended and Heather came around to gather up the exam papers. She smirked at me as she picked mine up, then she flipped it over to give it a quick glance, probably to see how badly I had done. She gasped at what she saw and dropped the other papers.

“Heather!” Black shouted and strode over to her. “Pick those up right now and...”

Heather turned my papers around and showed them to him. Black stumbled and kicked the other papers as he stared at it.

“Professors!” A woman's voice cut through the auditorium and they both jumped. “Get back to work!”

“Y-yes, Director.” They said and gathered up the spilled exam papers, then Heather continued around the room to gather the rest.

I turned to look at Pavinca and she nodded at me. I nodded back and waited for the professors to return to the desk at the front of the room.

“We should have the results of your exams after the weekend.” Black said. “You're dismissed.”

Pavinca walked by me and over to the desk at the front. She held out a hand and Heather didn't have to ask what she wanted. My exam papers were handed over and Pavinca nodded and made them glow.

“I expect a fair marking, or you'll be joining Mage Kimond in looking for a job.” Pavinca said with a flat voice. “You better not mess with his practical exam after lunch.”

Both Black and Heather looked guilty.

“Should I fire you now for tampering with a student's exam?” Pavinca pointedly asked them.

Both of them shook their heads.

“Then stop whatever you were planning before it happens.” Pavinca said and handed them my exam papers. “I'll be watching you.”

They both nodded and she walked over to me.

“It seems I really did need to keep an eye on things where you're concerned.” Pavinca said.

“Was there any reason why you wouldn't?” I asked.

Pavinca huffed and waved at the door. “Go and eat. I'm sure Robin is missing you already.”

“Yes, director.” Gella said as she smiled and took my arm to lead me there.

I didn't protest or tried to take my arm back, even when we were entering the cafeteria. Not surprisingly, a few people whispered comments about it. What wasn't surprising was that neither Robin nor Jinelle reacted to it. They also had plates of food ready for us.

“I suppose you're going to be eating with my lord from now on?” Gella asked as I sat her down as if she was a lady.

“You mean until tomorrow and the three days next week? Yes.” Jinelle said with a smile.

“How sad are you that you only shared one class with him this year?” Robin asked.

“After the intense way we studied? Very sad.” Jinelle admitted and blushed a little. “I won't intentionally fail just to stay around the academy to try and repeat that, though.”

Robin chuckled and poured out some wine for everyone. “I know I missed him when he disappeared.”

“Is that because you have to eat with the staff when he's not here?” Gella boldly asked.

Robin laughed. “No, he's just nice to be around.”

Gella and Jinelle exchanged knowing looks, because they knew it wasn't always nice around me. My reputation as the Marsh Man was quite prolific after my return and clearing out most of the Mages Guild.

We shared polite conversation after that and ate our food, drank wine, and enjoyed the short time we had before it was time to return to the testing auditorium and the enchanting practicals. We entered the building and the desk setup hadn't been changed, which was odd. You had a much harder time enchanting on a desk used for writing, which was why you always used a workbench instead. It also gave you a more stable place to work.

“Take your seats, everyone.” Black said and the students did. He could clearly see that they were uncomfortable. “There's a reason you're still at your writing desks.”

“We're not working on anything here, are we?” A young woman asked.

“No, you'll come up here to the workbench behind the screen to do your work.” Black said.

“Are you joking?” A young man asked. “That's going to take forever if we have to do them in a line!”

Black looked at his wife and she sighed and shook her head.

“I thought I told you to fix things.” Pavina's voice said from nearby. “This doesn't look fixed.”

Black winced and Heather dropped her head into her hands.

“What scheme were you going to do to Lord Drake?” Pavinca asked as she came out of the corner and walked over to the desk at the front of the room. “A trap? A hidden spell? An enchantment you'll only activate when he's behind the screen and blame on his experimentation?”

Black's face showed the truth, even though he never said anything.

Heather just started crying. “I didn't want to do it! He ordered me! He said he would ransom me back to my family if I helped!”

“You wanted out of your marriage contract?” Pavinca asked and she nodded. “Why?”

“I've crossed Lord Drake several times already. I didn't want to die for trying to kill him.” Heather said.

“Shut up!” Black spat and turned towards her, one of his hands were glowing slightly with a preparing spell. “They have no evidence if you stay quie-UGGLLHH!”

Gella sheathed her sword as she stood up from behind him. No one but me had seen her dash forward and swipe her glowing sword across the man's neck. Her elbow tapped his back and his head flopped off and landed on the floor with a thud. His body followed a second later.

“Contract ended.” Gella said and walked back to her desk. “Appropriate compensation will be expected for Lord Drake's services.”

Heather looked at her husband's blank stare and then at me. “I will send over a dozen swords and two dozen knives.”

“And a forge.” I said. “I'll pay for the forge and to have it set up.”

Heather smiled slightly and nodded. With her husband dead, she wouldn't need to be ransomed back to her family. She now controlled the Montgomery Family on her own and her daughter was the family heir. The grandfather was also dead, so Heather was technically the only adult left with only younger cousins that couldn't really lay claim to the family business.

“I have to delay the start of the exam for an hour.” Pavinca said and a few of the students groaned. “I need that long to get the proper setups brought in and to check over what the exam was supposed to entail and not what is already set up here.”

“My lord, let's go for a walk.” Gella said and stood, took my arm, and led me from the room. Her move gave the others a reason to leave and the room quickly emptied behind us.