Chapter 46 part 5

Beth nodded, happy with that time frame. "I think I might be able to help with a that a little," she said. "I mean, once I talk with my friends, I think I should be able to use my magic to speed it up a little. That way we probably could get three sets of clothing done by tomorrow and can leave then."

"You should also consider taking Hesha with you," the marquis added, surprising Beth.

"Why?" she asked. "Isn't she going to be trained by your people to fight or whatever?"

"She is," the marquis acknowledged. "However, I believe you mentioned about her wild magic. Since you and your friends have mastered your wild magic, I think it would be beneficial for her to learn to use hers as well. Only, for you to do that, you would need to teach her yourselves."

Suddenly Beth's headache returned. This time with a vengeance. "I'm not sure we'll have much time for that," she commented. "We're going to want to get this done as quickly as possible. There's not going to be much time for us to teach her anything."

"If you're worried about that, why not take one of your other friends from that village you brought here? Another should be able to help you get more done. Plus, it'll help lend credence to you being street performers that aren't associated with anyone in particular, least of all me."

Beth wished that she had something for her headache. She could see that the conversation was heading towards more politics, even though she wished it wasn't. It was clear that's what it was going to be about and she wished there was a way to not deal with any of that at all. Not when there was so much riding on them finding out if the girl in the rumor was in fact Charlie.

However, there was also another point that Beth didn't understand and felt it should be addressed sooner rather than later. Especially since she'd heard the term before but never actually asked about it.

"Aside from training Hesha, what do you mean, by 'wild magic?' And why do you think that me and my friends have it as well?"

"Because last night you were able to use it without problem when you created the noises out of the air," the marquis replied simply.

"But that's just regular magic," Beth protested, not sure what part of her magic was 'wild.'

"And yet you were able to use it without an incantation. Which means that it was wild magic that you used," the marquis explained.

Beth sighed. She felt like she should have seen that coming, despite the fact that she hadn't been certain exactly what he had been getting at. After all, she remembered that Heathcliff and his people didn't know about focuses being necessary to use their magic and it was clear that they only understood words, and sometimes gestures, to be necessary.

"I think I understand a little," Beth allowed. "Just when my friends and I learned about our magic, we were taught that we only needed a focus to use. While the focus could be incantations, like you mentioned, that it didn't have to be that way. That we could have something else in its place."

The marquis smiled as he shook his head. "I don't really understand what you mean, but it doesn't matter since I don't have any magic. Wild or otherwise."

Beth sighed. She supposed she should have expected that he wouldn't understand her explanation. Although, she felt like it was good that she at least tried. However, she couldn't think of how else to put it to try and get him to understand. Although, she supposed that it didn't really matter anyway. As long as he was on their side, then he'd be their ally, which would then allow them at least a base of operations to work through things in this world.

Even if it was just trying to figure out how to get others to understand that there wasn't any 'wild' magic. Just regular magic that can be wielded using different means other than just words and gestures.

"Well, I'll talk with my friends and we'll see what we can do about that. Though, I think it should be simple enough for use to take Hesha along," Beth said, already planning out a few details. "Maybe we can teach her to use her magic while we walk."

"However you do it, as long as you're sure about what you decide, just remember that if you bring anything that threatens my daughter or my people, then you won't be welcome here anymore."

Beth understood the marquis' sentiment, but she felt like he was being a little too melodramatic here. After all, it wasn't like they were looking for trouble either. They'd prefer to find Charlie, save her if it was necessary, and locate the griffin canyon. They had no intention of getting involved with whatever politics or issues were going on in this world. That was beyond what they had signed up for when they first decided to come on this expedition.

_

As Charlie opened her eyes in the morning, she was appalled at how much her body hurt. Not just from the soreness that swinging the sword the day before had caused that didn't seem to want to be healed through the magic of the healer provided, but also from the sunburns that covered every inch of her exposed skin.

She had been aware of the burns the day before, or at least she was pretty sure she had been aware, only now that she was better rested did she really feel them. Especially as she made the slightest move.

Charlie was at least thankful for Cithis and Haln having already woken up before her, with how she remembered them falling asleep like they had the night before, using her as a pillow. She was confident that if she'd woken up with them like that, that it would only have hurt that much more. Although, she felt a little surprised that she hadn't woken up through the pain when they had gotten up.

Not that she was complaining. She felt completely worn out and even wondered for a minute why she'd woken up in the first place while feeling as tired as she did. She'd have expected to continue sleeping until she'd be a bit more alert.

However, the answer came to her as she felt, more than saw, a wooden spoon touch her lips. When she opened them, she felt the spoon enter and drop off its contents in her mouth. Which was what she'd expected. A kind of soupy oatmeal that she'd started getting when she'd been dropped off at this place, although she couldn't be sure exactly how close it was to the oatmeal she had eaten a few times before on Earth.

Charlie looked around and saw that Cithis and Haln seemed to have decided that they needed to feed her breakfast, which Charlie was pretty sure she needed, even if she was too tired to care at the moment. Especially since she was pretty sure that she'd be expected back at that arena today as well. No matter how tired or burned she was.

She also wished that she could thank Cithis and Haln for feeding her, even though she was done with that already, even though she could see them moving the spoon back to her with more of the oatmeal.

Taking the spoon from them, she carefully sat up while putting the oatmeal in her mouth. She wished the oatmeal wasn't as bland as it was, but had a feeling that there wasn't anything she could do about it right then. She didn't know if she could ask for any other options, but doubted it'd be as simple as that.

Cithis and Haln seemed happy to see her awake and willingly let her take the bowl from them. Watching her eat with smiles on their faces.

While she couldn't help but feel self-conscious eating while they watched her, she could see two bowls that had been emptied already. Which told her that they'd already eaten and that's probably why they'd started trying to feed her, since Charlie knew that when their captors came to collect the bowls, if they hadn't finished eating, that their captors wouldn't care. The leftover food would be taken and they wouldn't be able to get it back. Which is what happened when Charlie had only finished half of the bowl.

Charlie tried to delay returning the bowl as long as she could, so she could get as much of the oatmeal down her throat. Yet, it was so bland that she'd only been able to get about four more spoonfuls down before she couldn't ignore their insistence that she return the bowl to them.

If it was just her, she doubted she'd care as much. It was just that she couldn't be certain that Cithis and Haln wouldn't suffer any consequences with her, or essentially because of her, for doing that. Still, she couldn't say that she was sorry to lose the rest of the oatmeal. While it was good to fill her empty stomach, she could imagine herself throwing up trying to get some of that down with how bland it was.

If she had just a sprinkling of sugar on top of the oatmeal, she was confident that it would become much more palatable. As at least then it would have some actual flavor to help it go down a little easier. Yet, she knew that there wasn't much point in wishing for something that she couldn't do anything about. Even if it was something as simple as that.

What surprised her after she returned the bowl was that she was given a piece of chalk and a piece of broken slate. She remembered the night before that the angry woman had told the others to give this to Charlie, but she hadn't actually expected it to arrive this quickly. Or at all. Not with how things seemed to happen around here.

The piece of slate was about as long as her hand and twice as wide. Though, she wondered if it had been considered to be scrap as it had been clearly broken on one side that had an almost razor sharp edge.

"What's that?" Haln asked as Charlie brought the piece of slate and chalk back with her.

Charlie looked at the sharp edges of the piece of slate and briefly considered how safe it was to let the children look at, but quickly threw caution to the wind. If it wasn't safe, Charlie was sure that she might get to see their response time to an emergency.

If nothing else, it would allow her to know that information, so she could use it to plan an escape if she ever felt that she had run out of time to look for an opportunity and should instead just blast her way out.

As Charlie handed the slate to Haln, she watched as he examined it, turned it over, and even traced is finger along the sharp edges, like it was something he wanted to memorize everything about. As she watched, she couldn't help but feel a little worried that he might cut his finger with it, despite her earlier thoughts about being able to see the response time to any emergency of theirs.

Fortunately, Haln didn't hurt himself in the slightest with the slate, but merely handed it back to Charlie. Cithis didn't seem as inclined to want to hold the slate, but merely looked at it and tapped it a couple times before she shifted her attention elsewhere.

Charlie decided to lay back down, and started to until the straw started poking her again.

While it was uncomfortable before with getting poked and scratched by the straw, with her burn it hurt much more and made her feel like her burns were getting scraped away, skin and all. Which Charlie couldn't remember feeling anything so painful before. Even when she was a little kid and could start bawling at the smallest hurt, this felt worse.

She could even feel tears start to form in her eyes as she quickly moved away from the straw.

Then as she looked at the pen she was in, she realized she had started breathing heavily, like she'd been either scared or was trying to catch her breath from running. She suspected it was because of how the straw felt like it did against her burns, but she wasn't going to dwell on that much right then.

She instead looked for another place where she could lay down and rest without having her sunburns hurt like that again. Not that she had much room in the pen otherwise, since the straw pallet seemed to take up about half to three quarters of the pen.

So, all she could do at the moment was lay down next to the bars of the pen and hope her burns would heal quickly. Though, she didn't have much hope of that happening, since she knew that she was likely heading back to the arena sometime this day for whatever they had going on.

Not that anything else had been said about it to her. She didn't know when it would occur, nor did she know what to expect. Aside from using the blunted weapons. She wouldn't be surprised if she had to try and fight others in a less structured way as yesterday had been.

When she felt comfortable again, she closed her eyes and even smiled as Cithis and Haln lay against her, despite their touch making her burns hurt more. Somehow if it was because of them, she didn't seem to mind her burns hurting so much. Even as they used her breasts as pillows again.

There was something about them that she just couldn't tell them to stop and leave her alone. Even though she still felt incredibly uncomfortable not having anything to wear around them. Though, part of her idly thought about how Alex would likely enjoy seeing her in this place. Solely based on how she knew that Alex had been trying to get her naked since about when they'd started going out. Although, Charlie was also confident that Alex would try to push to do more than just look at Charlie's body.

Charlie quickly pushed those thoughts away as she felt her body start to respond to the mere idea of what she knew was going to follow those kinds of thoughts. She really didn't want the two children with her to start asking questions about what was going on with her like that.

Charlie took a deep breath and allowed herself to doze, her thoughts floating by idly as she waited for them to take her back to the arena.

What she had started to consider lunch with the single hunk of bread came by and Charlie felt a little disgusted with herself when she realized that she was starting to get accustomed to drinking out of the water trough. She was confident that it was very unhygienic and would probably increase the chance of communicable diseases, but it wasn't like she had any other options for water.

When she was done, she then went back to dozing and hoped that whatever would happen in the arena would occur soon. Not only was she getting bored, but she knew she had to limit her movements or she'd aggravate the burn that covered almost the entirety of her body.

When the stew came around for what Charlie considered 'dinner,' she started to feel like something was wrong. With it being this late, she was starting to think that something had happened and she wasn't going to be taken to the arena. Which then also meant that whatever happened might have a negative impact on her. Which was also something that she couldn't help but worry about.

So, as she ate her stew, she also worked at crafting a question with the piece of chalk she'd been given on the piece of slate. She wanted to put her question out without conveying that she was worried or nervous about the reasons in any way. Especially since she couldn't say what this was all about in the first place.

What she finally settled on was: Wasn't I supposed to go back for the next part of the test today?

It took up most of her piece of slate, but that didn't matter. Especially since it wasn't like they would need to write a response. They'd be able to answer her question verbally.

"What're you doing?" Cithis asked curiously,

Charlie wished she could explain, but it wasn't like she could expect this girl to be able to read what Charlie had written. Especially since these people seemed rather surprised that Charlie could read their written language as well. Which didn't speak very well for the education they supplied those they sold as slaves.

Charlie only smiled at Cithis, not knowing how else to respond. She was starting to wish that she could unseal her voice periodically, but not only wasn't she sure when others might be within earshot, but also that the two children might not be good at keeping a secret. If they couldn't, she wouldn't hold it against them, but it would still create problems for her down the road. Such as their captors wanting to learn why Charlie could speak sometimes and not at others. Which only served to make things more complicated than she'd like.

When the young man came to retrieve the bowls, Charlie held up her question for him to read as she handed her bowl and spoon back. She hoped that she'd be able to get a quick answer, though she couldn't say who she expected would give it so her, since there was just so much of this world she was still learning about.

Unsurprisingly, the young man looked at the slate uncertainly before calling out to someone out of Charlie's sight.

"Uh, I think she has a something to say! You told me to tell you if she used the slate," the young man said, sounding more nervous than she had thought he would.