Chapter 6

After the events of the day before, it was almost a shock when Sera’s morning started with the usual chores. Green expected her to straighten the kitchen after breakfast, to feed the chickens, and to mend the clothes. Other chores turned into disasters too easily, so Sera usually had most of the day to herself. Usually she would wander around the woods or perhaps Tolerable, or even occasionally ask the village schoolteacher for books to read.

But now she was a fairy goddaughter, so she had a lesson to go to. In the short trip through the woods to get to the lesson clearing Sera managed to trip over a vine, fall in a creek and completely tear off one of her apron ties. As she trudged into the clearing she wondered exactly how many more disasters could happen during the lesson.

“Thank you for getting here so quickly, Sera,” Phina said pleasantly. “I had thought that your uncle would have you doing chores until noon at least.”

Sera flushed. “Too many chances for disaster. Just walking here I managed to wreck my apron.”

“Did you? I don’t see anything wrong with it.”

Without thinking Sera grabbed at the apron hanging haphazardly over her dress, held it up and stared. Not only was the strap neatly reattached but the mud stains from the creek were gone. Sera bit her lip, shook her head and decided that she was just going to have to get used to strange things like that. She let it fall back into place over her dress.

Phina motioned for Sera to sit beside her on a fallen log. “Most of your training will focus on learning about magic can do. You learned most of the rules of our trade yesterday and there’s really no way to learn the best way to complete an assignment other than experience.”

“So I get to use magic?” Sera asked, leaning forward with a grin.

“Not just yet. For now you’ll learn what fairy godmothers can use magic for. You also need to learn the most important idea: when it’s better to not use magic at all. Like yesterday, with your uncle and the princess.”

Sera groaned, but Phina ignored her and continued. “If I had used magic to push the ‘ideal’ man into Princess Ruby’s path, we would have missed the chance to see who she would have chosen. And who would choose her.” Sera opened her mouth to argue against her boring, ordinary uncle, but Phina crossed her arms and stared at the girl until she closed her mouth again.

“Today you’re going to learn some simple ways of spying on your subjects. Now, I believe in learning through experience, so grab my hand and we’ll be off.” Phina abruptly held out her hand to Sera, who stared at it dubiously. She finally decided that it had to be a fairy godmother thing and took Phina’s hand.

The world exploded in a flurry of blue glitter. Sera’s mouth dropped open and she squinted in the sudden burst of light, and threw her arms over her eyes instinctively. Stumbling backward, she fell into a pile of snow. Sera pushed herself up, sputtering and looking around frantically for Phina. What she saw turned all thoughts of teachers, fairy godmothering and fear flew from her mind. While Tolerable was in the middle of summer, this place was pure winter. Sun through the trees made everything gleam. There was complete silence, not even blowing wind or animal sounds.

The silence ended when Phina appeared in a dazzle of blue, a soft “pop” drawing Sera’s attention. The woman began to laugh softly and Sera was suddenly aware of the melting snow dripping through her hair and down her back. She sighed, blushed and then began to giggle herself.

“In the future, try not to let go of my hand.” Phina bit her lip. “I’m sorry I didn't think to warn you; I’d forgotten how surprising transportation by magic can be. Let’s try again, shall we?”

Sera clutched her teacher’s hand with both of hers and only jumped a little when the blue explosion happened again. This time they both arrived in a garden full of flowers, mostly roses in every imaginable color, with neat paths of soft grass and summer light, circled by a high stone wall that seemed to smile at the sudden company.

Before Sera could ask, Phina explained, “We’re in one of the less used palace gardens. You need to learn about the princess to complete your assignment, and I thought this was a good chance to teach how fairy godmothers learn about their subjects.”

“You mean we’re in the palace?” Sera felt her heart speed up and she looked around curiously. “It doesn’t look much different from Mrs. Stemley’s rose garden, except for the walls of course.”

Sera wandered a bit, her fingers brushing the velvety flowers. “Try not to go too far, Sera. It would be best if we weren’t found here,” Phina warned.

Instantly Sera pulled her hands back to herself and one short hop put her right back beside Phina, who was now looking down at a wooden bowl full of water. Without looking at Sera, Phina sat down and snapped her fingers. Curious at the sudden flair of color in the water, Sera crouched down to get a better look.

It showed a long table with three people sitting at one end. When Phina snapped her fingers again the bowl focused in on the three, who turned out to be King Bertram, Prince Kennard and Princess Ruby. Sera had never seen the king before but it had to be him, with the thick golden crown on his head. The king was a strong-looking man, with gray streaks in his black beard, sitting tall. Prince Kennard shared his father’s black hair and most of his other features, but was much ganglier overall. Ruby, now that she was dressed for the part, looked very much like a princess, her red hair bound up in an elegant braided hair knot.

It looked like they were eating lunch, although the only one actually eating anything was the prince. Sera giggled at the way Kennard stabbed and tore at his food, his mouth scowling and his eyes glaring. Ruby poked listlessly at her salad while the king was saying something, his arms waving grandly.

Phina reached into the water around Ruby’s head and pulled a large white wax ear out of the water, somehow. “Here,” she said, handing it to Sera, “it should let you hear what’s happening.”

Sera took it with the tips of her fingers. “It goes over your ear. Go on.” Phina already had hers on and looked a bit strange with the over-sized ear sticking out from the side of her head. Reluctantly Sera pulled the wax ear over her own ear and cringed at the cold, sticky feeling.

“…and of course your father was alright, my dear princess, but neither of us could eat a mushroom pasty for months after.” Ruby gave King Bertram a weak smile, sighed glumly and went back to prodding a tomato. A servant arrived and whispered something to the king, whose eyes widened. He swiftly stood to his feet and strode away, the servant scurrying behind.

As soon as they heard the door slam Kennard was on his feet and leaped across the table to grab Ruby’s arm. “Come on, Ruby. Now’s our chance to get out of here.” He yanked her to her feet, lettuce and tomato flying all across the table.

“There’s no point,” she said sharply, pulling her arm away. “They’ll just catch me like they always catch you. Besides, I’m not a savage. I’m not willing to live in the woods just to avoid getting married.”

Kennard drew himself up and said, “Well, excuse me if I haven’t resigned myself to this sham of a marriage just yet.”

Ruby raised her eyebrows and crossed her arms. “You’re being ridiculous. If anyone wonders where I am, tell them I’m in the west garden. There are some interesting orchids blooming that I’d like to catalog.” She walked away stiffly.

“Well, fine!” he shouted. “Have fun, princess. I’m not going to let them stuff me and put me on a wall.” Kennard raced away and after a few moments Sera heard the clanging and thumping that told exactly how long this escape attempt had lasted.

Yanking the wax ear off with a shudder, Sera said, “That was funny, but I’m not sure why you showed me, and that ear is just awful.”

Phina, pulling hers off more carefully, said, “The ear and the bowl of water are two valuable tools for spying on a subject. It’s much safer than sneaking around and it’s much faster than questioning everyone in the palace. The only limit is that you have to be close for it to work, and that’s not really that bad.”

“So I’ll have to do that a lot?” Sera grimaced.

“Yes. It’s one of the trickier things of magic, but once you learn it there's no trouble.”

“What do you mean?” Sera asked, curious. “About magic in general? How does it work, anyway?”

Phina stood up, and Sera did the same. “Magic, for the most part, is pretty instinctive. It does what you tell it, even if you don’t realize you’d asked it to do anything. It’s careful enough to know when you mean something, though, and it’s not malicious in the slightest. You have to study very hard in order to hurt someone on purpose.”

Sera smiled at her teacher, relieved. Phina dusted herself off briskly. “But enough about magic for now.” She gripped Sera’s hand and they transported back to the clearing. “Now, what did we learn that could make it easier to help Green and Ruby along?”

Sera groaned. “Why does it have to be my uncle? Why not get the prince and princess to fall in love? Why a farmer?”

“Because Ruby and Kennard despise each other and it could take years to accomplish even the slight feelings that are already there in Ruby and Green. Why are you fighting this so much? Don’t you want your uncle to be happy?” Phina asked angrily.

“Because people like Uncle Green don’t belong in fairy tales!” Sera yelled, her hands flapping around wildly.

Phina took a step backward and her eyes widened. “Now why would you say that?” she asked quietly, her voice tense.

Staring at the ground, Sera said, “He’s ordinary. He’s not especially heroic or rich or smart. He’s just a farmer in Tolerable, which is just an ordinary, average place. He’s all stringy too, like a bean plant. He doesn’t even look like a prince ought to.” Sera bit her lip. It was a long time before Phina answered.

“Ordinary people have places in stories just as much as princes and heroes. I think your uncle will surprise you if you give him the chance.” Sera looked up at her teacher curiously, but Phina did not elaborate. “Please tell me what you learned about the princess that could link her to Green better,” she said.

Staring hard at a tree, Sera struggle to think of anything that could possibly tie Ruby and Green together. She smiled when she found her answer. “The gardens. Ruby sounded like she knew a lot about gardens, and that’s something that Green likes.”

“Exactly.” Phina gave Sera a small smile. “Now, that’s enough for today. I’ll see you tomorrow.” She glided away, and Sera realized that she was still stuck with her decidedly unromantic uncle as the lead character in her first grand romance.

With a sigh, she began trudging back to the farm. Stumbling over tree roots and thorny vines she kept mumbling to herself about the unfairness and the impossible nature of her task. She was so focused on her grumbling it wasn’t long before she tripped over a tree root and slid splashing into the stream again.

Completely soaked, Sera pulled herself onto the bank and flopped onto the moss with a sigh. It was then she heard the voices getting closer. Recognizing one as her uncle’s voice, Sera hastily crawled behind a gnarly old tree. He was talking to a woman, and Sera thought that this mysterious lady might help get her out of her impossible task.

When they walked closer Sera realized she didn’t dare move from her hiding place. If her uncle was out in the woods, it meant that it was none of her business and her snooping like she was would not make him happy. Moving as quietly as she could, Sera twisted herself into the tree roots and tried to keep her breathing quiet so she could hear what was said.

“It was a lovely walk, Green. That creeping ivy was just lovely. I can’t believe that this place has so many plants I don’t even know the names for.” The woman’s voice was soft and happy, and vaguely familiar.

“Glad I could show you. Perhaps again tomorrow?” Sera bit her lip hard at the hopeful tone in her uncle’s voice, trying not to squeal happily.

“Until tomorrow, then. We’ll meet in the same place as today?” Even though Sera couldn’t see the woman’s face, her smile shone through her voice.

“Of course.” Green’s long strides made the sticks and pine needles crackle. The woman sighed happily and walked away, her steps making a more sedate rustle.

Sera grinned to herself as she pulled the dead leaves out of her hair. She skipped the whole way home, and didn’t even care when she fell into a mud puddle. Phina would have to change her mind now, because Uncle Green was already in love with someone else.

Author's Note

Is this chapter slow or does the action move at an okay pace?