What if he gets married?

It had been over six months since Mary had sent her last letter to Zerden and his mother. Since she had never received a letter back, she had assumed they had respected her wish. The letter on the table was unexpected.

“You can go upstairs and read it, if you want,” Bettina said, placing a hand on Mary’s shoulder.

“I think I would rather read it here,” Mary said. She continued to look at the letter.

“You do that, I’ll put on some tea,” Bettina nodded.

“Let me take that for you,” Kopa said, reaching for the saddlebags. Mary let go of them.

She took a deep breath and picked up the letter and sat down at the kitchen table. The letter worried Mary. Had something happened? Was Anna okay? She knew there was only one way to find out. With a sigh, she opened the letter. There was a single line written.
 

‘I’m sorry, Mary, please forgive me.’


There was no signature, there was no need for it. Mary stared at the words.

“I hope it wasn’t bad news,” Bettina said as she put down the teapot and a platter of cookies. Kopa came after her with teacups.

“No,” Mary simply replied. She turned the letter towards them so that they both could read it. They read it and then looked at each other and then at Mary.

“Are you okay?” Kopa asked as Bettina poured tea for them.

“I think I am,” Mary nodded. She wasn’t thinking about the letter, she was thinking about the lack of emotions she had felt while reading it.

“Are you going to send a reply?” Bettina asked.

“No, that part of my life is over. I’m happy to see that he can admit he was wrong, but it changes nothing,” Mary said.

“You do what you feel is right for you,” Kopa said. Bettina nodded and patted Mary’s hand.

“Tell us everything about your trip,” Bettina said. Mary smiled at her mother. It was a way to get Mary to think of nicer things, and it worked.

Mary told them everything, almost, that had happened. She didn’t go into details of what she and Tenac had talked about as they watched the herds at night. Then she showed them the blanket she had received, and Bettina made a big fuss about it. Apparently, Che’hul blankets were highly sought after.

“That is a stately gift. You must have made quite an impression,” Kopa nodded, sounding proud.

“They were all so nice, and I had so much fun,” Mary beamed.

The break was over in a blink of the eye. Mary was soon getting ready to go back to the sanctum. She had had a good break; she had spent time with her mother, and she had slept late in the mornings and stayed up late reading. She had met Tenac, Sinhera and Jontak to have lunch. Jontak had spent most of the time whining about Firlea going back home and leaving him behind. Sinhera had been ready to kill him. Mary just thought he was sweet.

For the first time since they got back from Domne, the Lady was planning a longer trip. She was to go to the eastern border on an inspection trip. She would be away for about two weeks. That meant that Kopa would be away as well.

Mary had been worried for Bettina at first. But Bettina said that it would be nice to get some alone time. That made Mary feel better, but she still planned to visit home more regularly during the two weeks.

When Mary returned to the sanctum, she found herself alone in the room. She unpacked her things. Mary had brought her new wool blanket, it got to share space on the bed with Bettina’s home-made one. She also took out Zerden’s letter and added it to the rest of the letters.

Before she knew it, Firlea came into the room and engulfed Mary in a hug. Not long after, Hinat joined them, and the evening was spent exchanging stories about what they had been doing for the two weeks they were apart.

“It’s about time you put Tenac out of his misery and date him,” Hinat said to Mary.

“Or just skip that and go straight to marrying him. You basically have been dating since you first met,” Firlea added.

“Ha, ha, hilarious,” Mary said sarcastically.

“No, Mary, we are serious. You are basically like a couple, with none of the fun parts,” Firlea insisted.

“You two know that there is nothing like that between us,” Mary told them.

“If you say so. But just think about what it would feel like if Tenac met someone and got married,” Hinat said.

“He’s free to do that. I would be happy for him. He is a good friend and deserves to be happy,” Mary insisted.

But a couple of hours later, when they all had gone to bed, the thought came back to her. Even if she wouldn’t be completely honest with her friends, she needed to be honest with herself. After thinking about it, Mary realised that there was a part of her that would be disappointed if Tenac started dating someone.

She sighed and turned around in her bed. That didn’t mean that she was going to seek anything else but friendship with him. She knew that anything more than that was out of the question for her. She wasn’t naïve enough to think that Tenac would never find a woman to love.

Despite what people thought, Mary knew well that Tenac was handsome and as a captain of the grey riders and the Lady’s son. He was a highly coveted candidate for a husband by the women of the city.

Mary just had to get used to the thought of it. If she trained her heart to withstand the idea, it would be fine. And she had been honest when she said that he deserved to be happy. She could place his happiness before her own selfish wants.

It took Mary longer than usual to fall asleep. But she finally made peace with her wandering mind and could focus on the faint sound of the waves hitting the sanctum walls.

The first day back from the break, Mary was called in to see Furnlow. She got the message as they were eating breakfast.

“What have you done?” Firlea asked.

“I don’t know,” Mary said, shrugging. She guessed it had something to do with her five elements, but she couldn’t tell them that. She felt guilty for keeping it from her friends. But she had promised Tariana.

When it was time for lunch, Mary headed to Furnlow’s office while her friends headed to the dining hall. Mary knocked on the door and Furnlow’s voice called for her to enter. When Mary stepped inside, she saw Procecsa was there as well.

“Ah, Mary, please sit. We have things to talk about. I have requested that we get lunch sent up from the kitchen,” Furnlow said, and waved his hand at an empty chair. Mary sat down.

“I heard the good news. It’s an honour to have a student of such talents,” Furnlow smiled at Mary.

“Thank you,” Mary said.

There was a knock on the door and two of the kitchen staff entered at Furlow’s permission. They had brought plates of food for all three of them.

“Let’s eat and talk,” Procecsa said as she started digging into the meat stew.

It took them almost an hour to go through the plans that were put in place for Mary. She would have all her fire magic training with Procecsa, disguised as mentoring time. She was also to help Mary with learning about the inner workings of the aari. If anyone was to ask why Mary had almost the double amount of mentor hours as everyone else, they would just say that Procecsa needed her help as the experiments were of the outmost importance.

Bella left the office with just minutes to make it to her next class.

“What did Furnlow want?” Firlea asked as they all were back in their room after the afternoon classes.

“He wanted to ask me if I was interested in upping my mentor time. Sesca needs more help and her experiments are important enough that she gets what she wants.” Mary shrugged.

“Did you accept?” Hinat asked.

“Yes. I’m just as invested in the experiments as Sesca. I don’t want anyone else working on them,” Mary said, and showed them her new schedule.

“I don’t envy you,” Hinat said after looking at it.