The Wizard of Elsewhere

2.3 To Wander in Wonder

.... There needed to be More to it. I was was sure!

But I did not know why. Not yet, at least.

Something significant.

But the only thing I could think of was the night we'd shared under that fell, full moon. It was brilliant and round and gleaming. Perfect and bright to behold.

So I selected five silver coins which I had earned from Mistress Margaret, The Mayor's wife for taking care of Aemon and Keimen.

I had no reason for selecting the coins save for dramatic impulse, and I had no reason for selecting five except that there had been five of us by the fire.

'One for The Forerunner. One for The Wizard. One each for Aemon and Keimen and me'.

Significant.

It was only after that that I noticed the symbols, but by that point I had already determined that this was Right, so I couldn't back out.

The symbols, though.

The Tower, Crown and Gull of Leona Mell.

The Dragon and Spear of Felldan and The Tower within a Circle within a Star of Emen Ora.

Astelia's coin just showed a mountain peak and the last was from Kyemen and it just read its name across its face.

Tower Kingdom seals. Also significant, I knew, but the Wrong sort.

So I took the coins to Master Avel the blacksmith and asked him to melt them down to disks.

Master Avel did, but he was no silversmith as he reminded me repeatedly and when I received the coins back I saw that they were bubbled and pockmarked from the smelting.

Still, they shone with moonlight under a crescent moon that looked so like The Forerunner's grin, so, with, eyes that couldn't look too closely at them, I bound them in place.

— Leinan of Landsend (An accounting)

* * *

The Healers Quarters were located at the far edge of the Old District, which meant that they were constructed of that same oddly mottled, red and grey stone every dwelling in the Old District was constructed from.

Also it was big, at least by how Leinan measured such things. She never imagined it to be even as big as a lord's hunting lodge, but it was big enough and with enough rooms and conjoined dwellings, that she had had time to notice the few times she'd had to go deeper in than the doorway.

So it came as no surprise to Leinan that Mistress Heatherly did not appear immediately. More surprising was that Mistress Heatherly did not appear soon after either.

When she did appear, it was with a sigh. If Leinan didn't know better, she would have said it was a relieved sigh.

Except — Mistress Heatherly didn't do relieved sighs.... Other people did relieved sighs... after Mistress Heatherly left.

Mistress Heatherly was the Head Healer in Landsend, and as far as anyone else was concerned, save, perhaps the Mayor himself, the head of everything else as well.

She was a kindly matron who was tall, thin and brusk, with her hair bound up in a tight bun, and wore a black and white habit and a pinched expression.

If Leinan had Blades in her eyes, then Mistress Heatherly had Steel in her spine and all the way up past her hair follicles as well, by the look of her bun.