[FY/PR] Duality Ch. 1-6 Up (UPDATE! 10-20-07)

[Leavaros]

Chapter Six: Meeting Magisters and Starting Studies

VelArian
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Dawn's light and golden scents washed over me from behind the sofa. I rose from my sleeping place to find Cook Patti smiling at me from the table by the wide window, a tense smile, as if she were trying to keep her teeth from chattering. When I walked over, I took my blanket and draped it around her shoulders before seating myself for breakfast.

And what a splendid meal awaited me! It was a feast not only fit for the stomach, but for the eyes and nose as well. Two pitchers--one filled with milk, and the other with orange juice--towered over an only slightly shorter stack of pancakes, drenched in a golden syrup, a platter of rolled pancakes--"crepes", Cook Patti told me, "in the style of Gadolia"--with cream and strawberry preserves stuffed inside, summer sausage and fresh eggs on yet another platter, and finally a quaint pot of peach-flavored tea sitting nearest Patti, as fat as she was thin. The golden scents of summer filled me with warmth even as the view outside revealed gently falling snowflakes set against a calm blue sky with a great white sun. Cook Patti had created an oasis of summer warmth in winter's heart. It was so very like her: sight and smell should have clashed, but each oddly complemented the other.

A mug opposite Patti awaited me at my place. I sat down, and I picked food from the platters, relishing the scents. Patti self-consciously tugged at my blanket, pulling it around her like a shawl. "You're such a kind boy. And such an appetite! You know how to make a cook feel appreciated."

By this time I was on my second pancake and third crepe. I choked down the last bite of each and washed it down with milk--the orange juice tasted too bitter with the other sweetnesses--and then said, "You do appreciate Alan." Then it hit me that she was talking about herself--"Not to say that I don't appreciate you! And I do appreciate Alan, I mean, the meal is wonderful!"

"But...how did you--" Cook Patti looked confused.

"The strawberries." I filled in as I put two eggs and three sausages on my plate, and refilled the glass with the juice. That was fine--the clean sweetness of the orange brought out the sunniness of the eggs and the spices in the sausages. "It's the only thing that didn't fit. I know that you would never really change the complement to a meal--it isn't your style. At least, it doesn't seem like it." I stopped here and looked at her, and she nodded. "But Alan would. For you, anyway. And I've never seen anyone cook with so much fruit. It does seem very...Alan, you know?"

"You are such a special boy...." She watched me for a moment as I stuffed another egg in my mouth, and chased it with the bright drink. Then, "You got all of that from a night and a morning?"

I shrugged. "It isn't difficult to look at things and make links." I paused, thoughtfully. "You know, it's almost a shame that Alan caters to you like this."

"Why do you say that?"

"I'm not really sure. Alan seems like he takes his job seriously. Yet he is willing to replace parts of his breakfast for you."

"I never thought of it like that...." Patti sipped at her tea pensively. "do you think he does so to curry favor?"

Curry? I thought to myself, Maybe for lunch.. But then, I shook my head, getting back on topic. "No...I think he does it because he knows you like strawberries."

"They always were my favorite." She said nostalgically, smiling.

"But even so...I don't think it's right to compromise his own meal so that you can get your favorite food. It...takes something way from the food."

Patti sighed. "Sometimes, I think you know too much for your own good." She looked out the window. "I've chided him time after time to do as he wishes and he always tells me the same thing, 'I am doing what I want. I like to make you happy.'"

"That does sound like something he would say." I admitted with a sigh. "But I still think if he wanted to make you truly happy, he would make fewer changes for other people."

A long silence. "That is true, as well. It has always been my greatest hope for him. You know, you sound just like your Master." She smiled, her eyes becoming unfocused. "Nova, the Magister of Ethics."

"So that's what he teaches." I nodded to myself. It sounded like him. But I wondered where his multitasking fit in there.

"Well, no." Patti said, surprising me. "There hasn't been an Ethics class since Lionel was Magistrate. And of course, now that we need it most, it's not here."

I almost asked what she meant by that, and then thought better of it. "Then what does he teach?"

"Not much anymore. Mostly, he does research. Especially on people and places. He's more historian than teacher, anymore." She smiled and sighed, the picture of an old friend sipping tea.

"Master says that history is a teacher in itself, to anyone who cares to attend its classes." I was actually getting full. It was an unusual feeling, heavy and light at the same time.

Patti laughed, her smile warm with memories. "Yes, that is something Nova would say."

"It's kind of a shame. That he isn't teaching anymore, I mean. It seems like he has so much to give and..." So little time to give it. "So many people who need it."

She made an assenting sound and counseled, "Perhaps you should tell him that. You might change his mind."

I groaned. "At least I would have a teacher I know. I haven't even met all of my Magisters yet."

"But you will, Beryl. Today." Patti looked at me, smiling gently, eyes unreadable with warmth. Then, she turned her face to the window, looking out into the Campus. "Where is your Master anyway, I wonder? It's already midmorning."

"Maybe he stayed up late talking with Magistra Olivia." I theorized, looking outside.

Cook Patti made a sound in her throat. "I can imagine her keeping him up, dragging the stories out of him one by one." She hid a tiny smile in her teacup, but not before I caught sight of it. "And he deserves it, too, abandoning the poor girl like that. Shameful." She shook her head resolutely and tried not to smile.

My confusion was cleared up when Master came to get me.
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