“Ye need ta calm down, Earl.”
The air outside Gina’s witchy where is crisp and cold. It carries with it the sound of winter wilds (mostly birds, squirrels, dogs, and sheep), silent snow, and itself inching across the rolling lands and through the thick trees.
It’s almost peaceful.
Trying to take that peace in, Jarl breaths the frozen forest
air into his shuddering lungs and holds onto it—holds onto the illusion of
peace and calm in the vain hope that it will disperse within himself and become
him like death destroyer of worlds water becomes coffee and tea.
(It doesn’t work; not really.)
~
“Handsy found t’e infermation fer ye.”
The morning sun casts long shadows on the witch’s land. Most of it shrouds the wooden where in darkness, hiding it from view like the lashes of a shy maiden—or a coy one. (That fits her better.)
The holes in the snow that marked how they came are off-white holes of robin eggs.
Their pits for bodies glimmer oddly in the rising sun, obtuse and obvious; attractive. There’s a squirrel in one, its fluffy tail twitching over the edge of what might be Manus’ rose pink boot, stuffing its face with an acorn.
It seems happy, whether because of the treat or the halfway shelter.
Jarl tries to be happy too (Shouldn’t be hard: Manus did as he asked!).
~
“But ‘e can’t tell ye hwen ye’re like t’is.”
Can’t he??? If it were good news (What would even BE good news in this sort of situation though? A name? Perhaps; but wouldn’t that be no better than Red—no better than The Devil’s Cavern at Bailecastle, Ireland? What good is a name if all it does is tell them someone in Manus’ world has betrayed them—betrayed him?) he would have blurted it out probably as soon as he woke up!
They probably would have formed questions about it!
But no: he stayed silent.
(He must know them.)
(It must be a friend.)
(Jasey’s safe, then?)
(… No; he can’t be.)
~
Manus would’ve tried to claim that the moment he woke—the moment he knew it to be true.
~
“I see ye’ve calmed down, some.”
Jarl jolts slightly in surprise, still stormy eyes wide as they glancing over his shoulder at the witch, herself, standing shockingly tall in her open doorway. His breath rattles as he realizes she’s completely alone.
HE’S alone; with HER; TRAPPED.
Gina smiles, somehow both amused and understanding, and Jarl relaxes. He’s suddenly reminded of Sophie, whom sometimes mixes those emotions and expressions as well. Often, he’d experience something troubling and go to her for help; and she’d always smile at him the same way: as though she finds him or his struggle amusing but also understandable—like a parent dealing with a spitting-image child.
How fitting (since that’s what Gina calls him).
Jarl sighs heavily, breath ghosting in the arctic air before
him, and nods as he begins to massage his face. Blood rushes back to his extremities,
flushing his face and hands with pins and needle-teeths. His pallor
gone, pounding in his head seems to take its place as the headache that had
been building demands attention.
Gina answers it.
She places beside him (then between them as she sits) a steaming pot of tea—probably more chamomile—accompanied by two cups and a cube of what could easily pass for a soft candy. It’s green, yellow, and red, though. Jarl frowns at it, not sure if he should trust it; but Gina just gives him that smile, again.
“It’s for yer headache.”
She takes it and offers it to him via her hand. It’s deceptively frail with thin and boney fingers and knuckles protruding from a narrow palm. Even her wrist looks as thin and boney as the rest of her.
And yet… just her presence is powerful.
Jarl quietly accepts the strange candy, following her instructions to only suck as it dissolves on his tongue. The taste of cherries, peppermint, and ginger explode in his mouth as it/he does this and he blinks.
“As I said: understanding how the elements are meant to combine.”
“… Herbology,” Jarl finally concedes as he remembers how to talk around what is, essentially, a soft lozenge. “My father…” The priests pauses to swallow thickly, mind flashing back to the moment he LOST said man instead of to when he was still alive and well like he’d wanted.
Gina waits patiently, parental smile still in her eyes.
“… knew some Chinese stuff. Used to use it for tea.”
The witch laughs, warm and wise and welcoming, “Smart man!”
Jarl nods with a smile, headache slipping away and lozenge mostly gone, “He was… He’d of liked this, I think.”
“Ginger and cherry are natural pain killers and help with inflammation; peppermint numbs sore muscles.”
“… Thank you.”
~
“Yer friend is scared, ye know—the pink one.”
Jarl fiddles with the new cup in his hands. It’s pink, like
the friend of which they speak, and shaped the same as the cups they were using
before he blew up. (They’re probably from the same set. She just got
more.) “Manus…”
“He fears what ye’ll do—”
“I wouldn’t hurt him!!!” Jarl stands as he yells, startling himself with how much his voice echoes in the air. Horror and fear reverberates in Gina’s clearing and, for a moment, Jarl worries if he woke the dead.
The cemetery’s right there, after all.
“I…” Jarl glances through the door, still open despite the winter winds clashing with the fireplace inside, but doesn’t see Manus or Áesta anywhere. The priest isn’t sure if they went into another, warmer, room or what but... He hopes Manus knows that.
(How can he though?)
(Jarl punched him.)
“Sit.”
Gina pats the spot beside her, literally, and Jarl hesitates before taking it. He’s now right next to her—nothing’s between them, not even the teapot—and he swears it’s like being sat down by a parent. In fact, he’s been in this position once before with his actual parents when they heard he bullied Jasey’s bullies.
(They were actually fine with that, though; they just wanted him to be more careful about it.)
“He isn’t afraid of being hurt, child; he fears YOU will be; and this Jasey, too.”
Jarl looks at her, confused. He shakes his head, “I don’t understand?”
Gina parentally smiles, “He learned something that might hurt ye.”
Shantown’s priest huffs, irritated and ignorant. “I don’t care—”
“They’re from Shantown.”
Jarl’s eyes go wide. He chokes on his own air as he whirls around to see Manus in Gina’s doorway. “W-what?”
“The person who took Jasey, summoned Red, and got him to take Jasey to Devil’s Cavern… We know them.”
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