(untitled)
an excerpt

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"What is that?" Torrent demanded as he sat on his cot in his cell reading the book he had stolen from the Talgeth Mar earlier that week.

"A book."

"There are PLANTS in it!" Torrent wailed. "What IS it?" He eyed it with some amount of disgust. "Does Vine know about this?"

"Vine doesn't run my life, you know. I can read a book."

"What LANGUAGE is that?" The horror was beginning to spread on Torrent's face as he began to start putting things together in his head. When Blaze didn't answer, Torrent stared harder. "Where did you go three days ago?" he managed to whisper.

When Blaze still didn't answer, Torrent started to sound panicked.

"Does Vine know about this!?" he yelped. "He should! You can't do this! Blaze, this is blasphemy in its highest!"

He looked up over his glasses. "Alright," he said slowly and closed the book.

Torrent stood practically perched on his toes. "Alright?" he managed to whimper.

"We'll go to Vine."

"Really?"

Blaze shrugged and took the book under his arm as he padded barefoot down the hall towards the Masters' office. Torrent hurried behind him.

--

Blaze slammed the book down on the table. Frost, Vine, and Shadow looked up from where they were reviewing figures and other important things and took in their two youngest members of the Masters of the Blade. "We have to talk," Blaze told them.

Frost and Vine looked up. Shadow continued adding figures. He waved a hand dismissively. "I'm not here," he told them. "Talk around me."

They shrugged and turned to Blaze. "What about?" Frost asked.

"I went to Talgeth Mar three days ago. I took a book from the library. I want permission to read it."

There. That was plenty straightforward. May as well throw a motive in there, too.

"Torrent's whining."

"I'm not whining!" Torrent snapped.

Blaze ignored him and turned to the elder Masters of the Blade.

"What is it?" Frost asked, poking it.

"I don't know. I don't know what's in it. I haven't had much time to look it over." He opened his mouth to continue and explain about the presence watching him while he was there, but he decided not to push his luck. It would be hard enough to convince them that there was anything of value to be had in the libraries of Talgeth Mar, let alone to convince them he was hallucinating other people in a city of the dead.

"What made you take it?" Vine asked, awed and fingering the gilt lettering before flipping open a page to stare at a diagram of a plant of some sort.

"This one, or any one?" he asked cautiously.

"Any," Frost droned.

"This one," Vine allowed.

They met each other with an annoyed glare. "Any, then this," Shadow interrupted, not looking up. Everyone turned to stare towards him and he held up his hands as he continued to add the columns of figures. "Fine, not here," he allowed and went back to adding.

Blaze steeled his nerve. If he couldn't explain it right, they'd probably kill him. He wouldn't put it passed them. He really just expected it of them. Any minute now, they'd just tell Torrent to slit his throat so he'd shut up.

Great. Fantastic. Way to encourage positivity, there, Blaze.

Well, the best way around these things was usually to just come right out and say it. "I don't understand them."

"This is a problem?" Frost droned.

"This is absurd!" Torrent interjected. "Tell him he can't read it!" He slammed his palms down on the table. "That's not anything we can understand. It's going to twist his brain and take him away from us!"

Blaze looked at Torrent as though he were crazy. "THAT'S absurd," he countered. "Why would I want to study plants?"

"You tell us," Vine offered. "That's what these are, right? Drawings of plants?"

"Talgeth Mar is a healing site of herbalists. We depend on physicians trained by the Talgeth Mar to stitch us up, and our bad blood with them is not unknown. I'm under the impression that outside this region, the Malga Dalharai are not treated with the proper respect, and lowly tactics such as killing our Masters on the table would not be below some of the physicians who see them." He thrust a finger at the book and its letters full of gibberish. "If we can make heads or tails of this, we can have our own physicians, and not have to worry about whether or not they're planning to poison us instead of medicate for fever."

"We're not doctors! We're Masters of the Blade!" Torrent snapped. "This! This is nonsense! You won't be able to make heads or tails of it! I doubt anyone but a Talgeth Mar would be able to, and THAT -- YOU CAN'T DO THAT!"

Blaze turned and gave him an easy smile. "I'm sorry. I wasn't asking /you/," he said and pushed Torrent lightly in the chest.

Torrent pushed him back and glared at him. "No. I won't let you."

"You told me to take it to Vine. I'm taking it to Vine," Blaze snarled, his voice suddenly deathly quiet.

Vine and Frost cleared their throats. Frost spoke but looked at the book instead of at the two young Masters of the Blade. "While I personally think it's fantastic you two are ready to tear each other to pieces over this, it doesn't settle anything at hand. Usually I'm one to support that, however, in this case I believe this will just give us cause to eventually lose one or both of you to blood loss, and having decimated the Talgeth Mar this week, I doubt any would be so willing to stitch you back up."

Vine glanced over at him. "I don't think Lord Shedyam would enjoy us letting both of our newest Masters die like that, do you?"

"I really don't," Frost agreed, though there was no emotion in his voice at all.

"I'm sure he wouldn't care at all," Shadow muttered.

The two eldest Masters rolled their eyes and Vine smacked Shadow upside the head. "Shut up, will you?" he muttered.

"So, being that we have no one to stitch the two of you up should you tear each other limb from limb," Frost continued, "you may study it."

Blaze gave Torrent a smug smirk and took his book in both hands, hugging it tight to his chest. He raised an eyebrow in challenge at his friend, who clenched his fists but said nothing.

"Should you glean anything useful, you will report it to us and we will consider setting up a corps of nameless to accompany the Masters of the Blade on their journeys as not only spiritual guides but also official healers."

Blaze nodded his head.

"Torrent, if this develops into a problem, you inform us."

Torrent said nothing but continued to glare at Blaze.

"Torrent!" Vine snapped.

He didn't jump or blink or even acknowledge that he heard beyond uttering one word: "Fine."

"Then, I see no more difficulties. You're both dismissed."

Without further ado, they returned to adding figures and bickering with Shadow on where the carried ten wound up. Blaze suddenly understood why it took three of them to do basic math. Oh well.

He had his book, and Torrent couldn't get on his case about it. What did he care if the Masters couldn't add?

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