Moving forward

Donte looked at Mary and smiled, which only made her angrier. She stood up as she didn’t want to be at a disadvantage.

“How is Hinat?” he asked as he took a couple of steps closer.

“Do you expect me to answer that?” Mary told him.

“Yes, why wouldn’t you?” he asked. He seemed genuinely surprised that she asked.

“After what you told her the last time the two of you spoke, I would think it would be obvious why I wouldn’t,” Mary said.

She watched him go pale, which was a feat with his dark, ebony complexion. That’s when Mary realised Donte didn’t think Hinat had told anyone about their conversation.

“Did you think she wouldn’t tell us?” Mary smiled.

“It was a private conversation,” he mumbled. Mary shook her head.

“I think it was a little too private, shouldn’t your wife have been included? Surely, she has a right to be part of the decision as well?” Mary asked.

“You don’t know what you are talking about, this is between Hinat and me,” Donte said, taking a step closer to Mary.

Mary felt uncomfortable with the tall, muscular man hovering too close to her. But there was no way she would let him know that. He had broken Hinat’s heart, and he was trying to use her friend. He would not bully Mary. She squared her shoulders and looked him in the eyes.

“Is everything okay?” Tenac asked.

He was walking up to them, his eyes locked on Donte. Tenac walked past Mary and stood in the small space between her and the merchant.

“Everything is fine. I was just asking about Hinat,” Donte said.

Even though Donte had seemed tall, Mary realised he was a couple of inches shorter than Tenac. But Tenac never used his size to intimidate people. That’s why Mary often forgot how intimidating he could be when he wanted to. Like now.

“You won’t be hearing from her again. It’s best that you put that behind you,” Mary told Donte. His eyes moved from Tenac to her. He wasn’t pleased.

“I won’t give up on her until I hear that from her,” he coldly said.

“I think you have forgotten who both her and my father is. Your new father-in-law may be a big merchant, but Hinat’s father is the ambassador. What do you think would happen if Hinat’s father contacted your father-in-law and told him what you proposed? Do you think that will sit well?” Mary asked.

“And Hinat is like my sister. I will make sure she is safe, even if that means using my father’s influence to make sure you will be banned from doing trade here ever again. You have underestimated Hinat, and you have underestimated the ones that love her. You better walk away now, and I don’t want to hear that you have bothered her,” Mary told him.

Donte looked terrified at the thought of the scenarios Mary had presented to him. He looked at her and then at Tenac.

“I would do as she says. And I would add that you should stay away from Mary and Firlea as well, for your own health,” Tenac said in a dark voice.

Donte turned around so fast that the colourful fabric of his clothes billowed, and he hurried away. Tenac turned to Mary and handed her a cup of coffee.

“Thanks,” she smiled and sat down on the bench.

“What was that about?” Tenac asked as he joined her.

Mary told him the story and watched his anger grow.

“That man has no honour,” he huffed. “If I had known, I wouldn’t have let him leave that easily,” he added.

“I appreciate you coming to my rescue,” Mary said.

“It didn’t look like you needed it. You looked ready to take him on,” Tenac sounded amused.

“Of course, he hurt Hinat. I would have set him on fire if he had tried anything,” Mary told him.

“I don’t think I have seen this side of you,” he said.

Mary shrugged. She was protective of those she cared about. Fortunately, she hadn’t needed to show it, as they were safe most of the time.

They continued talking about other, more pleasant things, and Tenac finally bought a new teapot for his mother. Mary smiled.

“What?” he asked as he picked out a bright red teapot with orange, green, and teal pattern.

“I’m giving her a tea plant. She will think we have coordinated our gifts.” Mary smiled. Tenac laughed.

He insisted he follow her to the river field. They said goodbye, and Mary made her way back to her room. Hinat and Firlea were already back. Mary had debated whether to tell Hinat about Donte. But in the end decided she would.

After she had told them, Hinat looked deflated. For a moment, Mary thought it had been the wrong decision to tell her.

“I’m thankful that you told me,” Hinat said.

“Really?” Mary asked.

“Yeah, I need to see him for who he really is, not the person I thought he was,” Hinat nodded.

“Did you tell your father?” Firlea asked.

“No, I couldn’t. I don’t think I ever can. My heart won’t let him go,” Hinat sighed. Mary understood. She had done the same with Zerden. Even when she finally had realized that what he did was wrong, she had protected and defended him.

“It will change,” she therefore reassured Hinat.

“I don’t think so Mary, I think this was it for me,” Hinat cried.

“Don’t say that. Of course it wasn’t,” Mary told her and Firlea agreed.

Firlea told them about her first love. A farm hand on her father’s farm. She had been sixteen, and he was a couple of years older. It had all been very innocent, but then he had gotten an offer to come and work for his uncle. Firlea had thought he would turn it down, but he had happily accepted and was gone a couple of weeks later.

Mary looked at her friend and then she did something she had never done. She told them everything that had happened between her and Zerden. Not the light version she had told Tariana and her mother, or the vague answers she had given Tenac and her father. She told them everything.

“That is horrible,” Firlea said.

“What a vile man,” Hinat said as she hugged Mary tight. Mary smiled at her friends.

“Thank you. I have never told anyone,” Mary confessed.

“No one? Not even your mother?” Firlea asked.

“No, well, she knows the big picture, but not everything. When we spoke about it, I was still embarrassed by it. And I still hadn’t let go completely, so I was protecting him,” she smiled at Hinat to let her know she understood.

“You haven’t even told Tenac? You tell him everything,” Hinat asked.

“Of course she hasn’t. If she had, Tenac would have gone over there and killed that man,” Firlea huffed.

“You are right,” Hinat smiled.

“Will you two stop?” Mary said.

Her friends just smiled at her.

As the weeks passed, Hinat seemed to do better. As the evaluation period for new trainees rolled around again, Mary and her friends volunteered this time as well.

Mary saw many unfamiliar faces amongst the candidates, but there were also those she recognised from the previous years.

With the examination of the third years and the start of the new trainees, Mary and her friends realised they were now the new third-year trainees. They only had one year left before taking their own exams.

That was a daunting thought, and all three of them put even more effort into their education.

Procecsa once again asked Mary if she wanted a new mentor, and Mary once again declined. Their study on disturbances in migration patterns had become far bigger than they initially had thought, and they continued it for another year.

It would mean a lot more field studies for Mary and she, her mother and Tariana had a long conversation with her father about it. In the end, he agreed to let her travel with the usual number of riders.

Their first lesson of the new year was practical magic, a class they all took. The teacher was a young aari with a contagious laughter. He started the lesson with a short introduction of himself.

“Now that the pleasantries are out of the way, let me tell you what we will work on this, your final year,” he smiled.

“You have spent two years to get to know your magic and to work on controlling it. By now you all should have mastered that. You should have gone from the big, flashy displays of magic to the more subtle ones,” he continued, and the class nodded.

“Now we will work on increasing your stamina. As you all know, magic takes energy. It’s hard work to use magic. And as you also know, we haven’t allowed you to build your stamina. Why do you think that is?” he asked. Mary thought about it and then tentatively raised her hand.

“Yes, trainee…?”

“Mary,” Mary filled in his question.

“Ah, so trainee Mary, why haven’t we let you build up your stamina until now?” he asked again.

“Because it’s safer that way? If one of us lost control of our magic, we wouldn’t be able to cause too much damage because we didn’t have that much energy to fuel the magic,” Mary answered.

“Excellent answer. I see that your reputation is well earned. Yes, it is for both your own and others’ safety that we train your stamina last,” he nodded.

Mary wanted to ask what reputation she had. But it didn’t seem right to interrupt the lesson for something like that. She let it go and concentrated on what the teacher was saying.

As the summer turned into fall, it was noticeable that they all were in their third year. The three friends had more field work to prepare them for life as an aari. That meant that they rarely were in Salmis at the same time.

As Tenac’s travels also took up more of his time as he worked up the ranks in the Lady’s guard, Mary found herself with more free time. Mary and Tenac had their own little routine when one of them was going away.

If possible, they always came to see each other off. Mary would give Tenac her necklace if he was going. If it was Mary that was leaving, Tenac would give her his personal Che’hul mark. The first time he had done so, Mary had refused to accept it. But he had told her it was the closest thing he had to her necklace.

This week, Tenac, Hinat and Firlea all were away. Mary had decided that she would spend the Saturday studying. But the nice weather distracted her. It was probably one of the last sunny days before the fall storms started.

There was a knock on the door and when she went to open it, a prospect stood outside. He handed her a note.

“I was told to wait for a reply,” he told her. She nodded and read the note quickly.

It was from Jontak. He asked if she would like to go for a ride with him. Mary smiled. That was just what she needed. She sent a reply back that she would be at the stables in an hour.

When Mary arrived at the stables, Jontak was waiting for her outside. Both his horse and Fizz were ready to go.

“Are we in a hurry?” she asked.

“No, well, I just thought it would be easier, and you know, then we wouldn’t have to wait and things,” he said. He was visibly flustered.

“Jontak, what’s wrong?” Mary asked as she took Fizz’s rains from him.

“Nothing,” he said, a little too quickly.

“Okay,” she said and mounted Fizz.

As they rode out of the city, there was silence between them and Mary could almost see him squirm in the saddle.