Elemental

24. TYING UP THE LOOSE ENDS

Five days after she had woken up from her vision, madam Fledgewell and Dr Greyfrond finally thought it fit to let Tori go.

While she was eating her scrambled eggs breakfast, Dr Greyfrond popped in to take a look at the rapidly healing wounds on Tori's back. She whispered healing incantations and looked generally happy at Tori's progress.
"I think you're ready to go," she told Tori happily.

Tori was ecstatic. Her hip felt weak after having stayed in bed for so long. Madam Fledgewell was so severe that she wouldn't let Tori up except to use the bathroom.

A very happy Tori was discharged from the hospital wing after lunch.
"Don't stretch too much," madam Fledgewell warned one last time, handing her a prescription of healing incantations, as Tori hobbled out of the hospital wing.
"Yeah, thanks madam."

Tori received more than a few curious looks as she slowly walked through the yard and into the main manor. Whispered conversations followed her all the way up to her quiet deserted cubicle. She slowly sat down on the bed, trying to collect her thoughts and herself.

She wondered how her friends were faring. From what she had caught of the whispered conversations that Dr Greyfrond and madam Fledgewell usually had, was that Laverne had been discharged from the hospital wing a few days before Tori.

Sighing, Tori looked at the mess around her room. It needed a thorough cleaning. I'm such a slob, Tori though to herself, shaking her head.

"Excuse me?" A knock on her cubicle door interrupted her stream of thoughts. A pretty bespectacled girl popped her head around the door. "Are you Tori?" She asked uncertainly, her forehead scrunched up.
"Yes, that's me," Tori replied kindly, raising her eyebrows at the dark haired girl in acknowledgement.
"Well I've got a message for you from professor Eldridge." The girl continued, a little more confidently this time. "She wants to see you in the outdoor tea Room at four."
Tori felt wary, yet slightly taken aback. "Did she say why?" Tori asked tiredly, wondering what on earth could be happening now.
The girl shook her head. "No, she did not."
"Rights, thanks." Tori smiled at the girl, who smiled back and left.

Tori looked at the clock in the wall. It was still two o' clock. She had a few hours to sort out her messy cubicle. Slowly and laboriously, Tori bent down and started picking her clothes and books off the floor. She dumped them on her bed and then, her back stinging horribly, she proceeded to fold all her clothes and pile them up at the foot of her bed. At least now the place looks presentable, she thought.

She made her bed, and then wandered around her room, her fingers at the pendants around her neck; one from Blaze, and the other that belonged to her mother.

Tori had a billion unanswered questions about her mother. Just what seemed like a few months ago, Tori had hated her mother for ever being in love with the darkest witch of all time. Now, after her vision in which her mother had so lovingly hugged her, Tori felt otherwise. The hatred had turned into something else. It had morphed into a confusing many headed beast of emotion that did not seem to have a base.

Neither love nor hate could adequately explain what she felt.

Tori stood at her window and looked out into the back yard. It was littered with students relaxing in the summery sun now that the pressure of work was nonexistent. She watched a couple of students swim in the pool by the large oak tree that she was fond of sitting under, while others passed around an enchanted frisbee. Sounds of excitement livened the very air around the college. Everyone was excited for the holidays.

Everyone, that is, except Tori.

She was not at all looking forward to going back to Madam Minch's children home. In fact, it was the last thing in the world that she wanted at that moment. Stepping away from the window, Tori turned away and walked out of her cubicle and headed down the stairs to the living room.