Chapter 23

**Merianna**

The next morning I got up out of bed before Doris could get the chance to chase me out again. Nelia on the other hand slept like the dead. After we had another few hours of dancing, singing and drinking - where Nelia challenged me to a drinking contest – I decided to call it a night when she fell out of her chair and onto the floor with the last goblet of wine flying out of her hands.

I had dragged her blubbering butt all the way back up to our room which was an impressive feat, since she could barely stand on her own and our room was on the very top floor which meant that I had to drag her up at least four flights of stairs.

Once we reached our room I helped her strip off her dress and wash off some of the sticky wine that she had spilled over her arms and face. Then I just dumped her in her bed and crawled into my own covers myself.

And this morning, I was on a mission.

I freshened up, dressed for the day, and then flew out of my room towards Noch's office.

I strode with purpose.

My back was straight.

My feet were firm.

My eyes were locked onto Noch's office door the moment it came into view.

My hand landed on the door handle.

I threw the door open with a whoosh.

And nothing...

I frowned.

Noch was known to be in his office during ungodly hours of the day or night. Well, it would usually be him or his doppelganger that might as well just have been him in the first place anyway.

But, it was completely empty.

I looked up towards the top of the bookshelves and saw that no tuft of fur peeked over any of the shelves either.

Frowning some more I strode off towards the entrance of the Order. I marched outside through the double doors and made my way swiftly towards Noch's smithy which was right behind the stables.

I knocked on the heavy wooden door and waited. I didn't hear the clattering of tools being used or the clang that usually came from him beating a block of steel or iron into the shape of something magnificent. I didn't even hear the sound of a cricket chirping inside.

I made a derisive sound in the back of my throat and stormed off back into the building.

I marched towards the kitchen where I heard some people gathering already. It was by no means really early in the morning, in fact it was close to noon now, and if Noch had to be somewhere else, then he had to be stuffing his face.

Or that's what I hoped at least.

I sneaked across the kitchen's hall, dodging feet, elbows and plates. When I finally managed to pop my head into the main kitchen's archway I was disappointed to notice that his annoying frame was nowhere to be found.

Next I checked the pantry. No, not there either.

With a frustrated grunt I whirled around and smacked into something soft and warm. With a yelp I jumped back a step only to realize that I had bumped into Raska's bosom.

"Excuse you too." Raska said with a smirk on her beautiful face.

"What are you doing back here?" I asked her as I closed the pantry door again.

"Me? I came sneaking after you. Clearly you are up to something. You have been doing your own kind of sneaking around this morning and I want to join in on the fun." Raska ended her sentence with an evil leering grin.

"I haven't." I defended myself half-heartedly.

"Of course not." Raska grinned. "Who are you looking for Meri?"

I consented defeat. It wasn't like I would ever be able to defend myself with a weak excuse such as I had been concocting.

With a glower I crossed my arms over my chest. "I'm looking for Noch. Have you seen him?" I asked flatly.

Raska blinked. "Oh! Now I remember, you're his official student now!"

Why did she look so proud to have remembered that fact?

"Yes Raska, yes I am. Now have you seen him this morning? I've looked everywhere I could think of except the forest so far, but I haven't been able to lay eyes on even a strand of hair belonging to him."

Raska leaned back on her heels a little and put her perfectly dainty fingers on the bottom of her chin as she thought. "Now that you mention it, I haven't seen him either." She mused.

I sighed in defeat.

"Are you two looking for Noch?" My head shot up to look at who spoke. Jasnine came gliding towards the pantry's door with a big jar of honey clutched in her hands.

I huffed and crossed my arms over my chest. Raska decided to answer the question for me though.

"Merianna here is looking for him actually. Do you maybe have any idea where he disappeared to?"

Jasnine looked thoughtful for a second until her face lit up. "I heard him telling Fog early this morning that he was going to go to the Council."

I felt a jolt go through my body. "The Council? As in the Witch Council?" I asked just to make sure that I heard her right.

"Yes of course, it's the only Council that matters around here." She said as she walked passed me, opened the pantry door and placed the jar of honey on a shelf.

Turning around, she looked down at me with a frown. "Did you need him for something important?"

"Not really ... I just wanted to start my serious training today." I said peevishly.

Raska snickered while Jasnine smiled kindly. "Well, it seems like he will be at the Council all day long today. I have a bounty I was planning on completing today. Do you want to join me?"

My head shot up to her. "You're inviting me on a bounty?!"

She blinked at me. "Why wouldn't I?"

Raska laughed out loud now. "We always told her no when she wanted to come on a bounty, remember?" She said poking Jasnine in the ribs which made her squeak adorably and smack Raska's hand away.

Jasnine turned back to me once she finished scowling at Raska. "You're an official member of the Order now. You will be going on bounties of your own soon enough. You might as well come along with someone who already knows how things work so you can learn."

I grinned up at her so widely that I swore my face would never go back to normal again. "Thank you!" I squealed and launched myself at her.

She laughed as I squeezed her in a tight hug. "The bounty isn't too dangerous either, so it will be good practice for you." She wheezed out.

"When do we go?!" I asked excitedly as I suddenly let go of her. She wobbled in place for a second with a grin.

"Well, how fast can you grab your equipment?" Jasnine asked me.

Before Jasnine or Raska could get another word out I was sprinting down the corridor and through the kitchen hall on my way up to my room.

I huffed and puffed as I finally reached the top, but didn't stop running as I flew down the stone corridor. I heard a surprised yelp as I banged open the bedroom door and skidded into the still dim room. I stopped as I looked over at Nelia's bed and saw that she was still a rumpled mess. But now she was a rumpled mess that was squinting through slitted eyes.

I smiled at her in amusement. "You clearly had too much fun last night." I said and then dove for my closet and gear chest.

"I did have fun actually..." A beat of silence followed her statement. When I looked up at her with a frown, I saw that she had a frown on her own face.

"What's wrong?" I asked her.

"What exactly did we do last night?" She asked in bewilderment.

I laughed out loud and she scowled at me. "Sorry!" I said through my laughter. "We had a great time 'is all." I giggled.

As I continued pulling out a few traveling items I glanced back at Nelia to see that she was still scowling at me. With a smile I started stripping off my dress and put on my leather pants and boots that I only wore when I really needed to. After the Maze trial I was kicking myself mentally the whole day for not wearing them, my normal boots were a little worn in and thinned but fine for that day, I could have done without the dress though.

As I pulled a dark green linen shirt over my head that almost appeared black I peeked over at Nelia again, only to see that she was still scowling at me. Waiting to see who would crack first.

I did.

A laugh bubbled its way back up as I turned to her while tucking in the hem of the shirt. "You challenged me to a drinking contest at the end." I snorted at the memory.

Nelia went still and blinked in disbelief. "I did?" She asked, looking positively horrified.

"Yes you did!" I chuckled.

While she was silently mulling over her mindless behaviour I pulled out some of the weapons that Raska and Nana Ara had handed down to me. They were strong and sharp weapons that had been well loved and used, before Noch had made Raska and Nana even better weapons.

I pulled out a sheath of throwing daggers and laced it onto my belt, next I pulled out a small double edged sword that looked very much like a smaller claymore, the only difference was that it's blade was a little thicker in width and it's tip looked like it had been cut diagonally and then sharpened. I have always wondered if the sword was supposed to look like this or if the tip actually had been broken at a stage and then fixed to be a short sword.

Either way, I liked using it. I would have preferred to have the Rune Scythe but Noch had refused to part with it on multiple occasions. Also he wasn't around right now for me to pester him about where he hid it.

"I can't believe that I was stupid enough to challenge you to a drinking contest... no wonder I feel so awful this morning." She said with a groan and laid herself gently back onto her pillow.

"You will survive. You're a healer after all." I said offhandedly.

"Where are you off to?" she asked while watching me with one eye.

"I'm going to go on a bounty with Jasnine." I grinned.

Nelia's eyes went big. "Already?!"

"Well, Noch isn't here today, and she invited me to go along, so I'm not going to waste my time doing nothing here while I could be on a bounty with her for the whole day." I said with a smirk as I picked up my small satchel of traveling items and tied it across my chest and shoulder. I made sure that my weapons were all properly laced in through my belt with easy access, then went to grab my black cloak.

"Be careful out there Meri! Don't take stupid chances!" Nelia warned me from the bed as she struggled to get up.

"I will be fine Nelia, don't worry. Plus I'll be with Jasnine, what can possibly go wrong with her around?"

Nelia just huffed and then got up and gave me a hug before I could grab my Sylvan staff.

"Okay, have fun then. I'll see you when you come back."

We heard a knock from the door, then Jasnine peeked her head through and smiled. "All ready?"

"Yes!" I said immediately. "See you later Nelia!"

Nelia just chuckled and waved me off while I grabbed my staff and headed out of the Order's comfortingly safe walls with Jasnine.

As it turned out, anything could go wrong with Jasnine around...