Chapter Ten: More Surprises

Soon, the sun began to fall beyond the vast mountain range in the distance, and Lurai patiently waited for Lanz to come back and find an ample punishment for the job she did. It wasn't quite the job that Lurai had anticipated doing but she pondered that using magic, in the way she did, seemed to overcompensate the job's requirements. She put all the equipment into the bucket and held onto the broom as she gave a final sigh of acceptance.

Shortly after watching the beams of sunlight fade from the crystal-clear windowpanes, Lurai heard a mass shuffle of feet outside of the office. After quickly peeking out of the doorway, Lurai's eyes widened as the hallway was now aligned with all the elves in the manor. One young elven girl, not more than Lurai's appearance of age, shot Lurai a glance, a kind of worried glance, that seemed to speak loudly enough. Lurai quickly hopped into the line between her and another female elven maid that didn't seem to mind.

"Are we done for the day now that night is falling?" Lurai thought to herself as she moved in tandem with the other elven maids down the hallway. A loud clack of shoes on wood resounded down the hallway with each movement, and soon enough, Lurai and the other elven maids put their supplies in the closet and dumped their buckets.

Following suit, Lurai moved with the other elven maids into formation near the door in the foyer that Lurai and Ramira first entered. Two human guards were standing near the door, clad in armor, and one was holding a long list of parchment. The other guard was examining each elven maid from head to toe.

This continued for several minutes until Lurai reached the two guards herself. The first guard held up his hand as the other reached forward and grabbed Lurai's dress. After seeing that happen to the maid in front of her, she expected it, so she attempted to be as emotionless as the other elven maids were.

"Lurai Fey'andal." The guard holding her dress said loudly. Lurai's name almost made her break her emotionless face.

"I guess, I am still not used to that name," She thought.

"Duties given were to clean Ms. Lanz's office. Has this task been completed?" The other guard said holding up the parchment.

Lurai nodded, similar to the other elven maids who had silently gestured in agreement.

The guard let go of her dress as a magical circle formed around his hand, "Healla". As he said this, Lurai saw her body glow a bright gold as her fatigue disappeared from her. Lowering his hand, he gestured towards the door, "move."

Lurai did as she was told as she entered the doorway and moved at a steady pace to the changing room she had been in with Ramira. Surprisingly, Ramira was waiting for her there. She gestured to stay quiet with a finger over her lips, as Lurai smiled towards her.

The two women quickly changed back into their old attire, placing the maid outfits back neatly together, and left as silently as they had entered the room. After walking through the tunnel that they went through to arrive at the manor and a small distance from it, Ramira turned to Lurai as they entered the garden.

"I am sure your first day was quite rough for you." Ramira sighed with a frown.

"Yes. It was." Lurai bit her lip as she looked at Ramira, "and it's going to be like this every day."

"That's our lives, my light." Ramira said as she looked around the garden, "It isn't going to change, but we can at least have a good family night together."

"I'd like that very much," Lurai said as she smiled towards Ramira. Lurai's thoughts then went towards the garden that now seemed to glow a light orange from the sunset refracting off some of the glass-like flowers that she didn't see earlier. The pace that Ramira and Lurai took was much slower than before, as they weren't in a rush anymore.

After passing back through the rough lands of the elven neighborhoods, they both reached their darkened home as there were no lights to be seen from the outside roads. Ramira snapped her fingers as she said, "Lait.", and a small flame appeared on her first-most finger on her hand. She turned to quickly grab a metal-like pan with a large candle near the doorway and lit the candle's wick to illuminate the small home.

"They aren't home yet?" Lurai asked as Ramira shook her head.

"The men arrive after the women, so we shouldn't see them until a short time later," Ramira said as she walked towards the fire pit near the beds, picked up a log that rested in a stack by the wall, and used the candle to light the firepit. "It means we can start dinner. Would you mind grabbing the sack by the door, my light?"

Lurai turned around to see a large beige sack, on its side, near the door. The lip of the sack was open so the contents of it were spilled out onto the floor, and the contents were various vegetables and two loaves of bread. As Lurai picked up the sack, she saw that sack was oozing some reddish liquid onto the floorboards, and she looked quite disgusted at it, which prompted Ramira's laughter.

"It's just the blood of the meat inside." Ramira laughed as she looked at Lurai, "If it is red meat, we will have a good stew tonight."

Lurai shook her head as she scooped everything back into the sack, "Sorry. I—I am not used to seeing that." Lurai then brought the sack over and placed it at Ramira's feet.

"I didn't see you at all at the manor today after we met with Ms. Lanz. I assume your training took a while?" Ramira asked with peaked interest.

"It didn't take me that long," Lurai said as she rubbed the back of her head. "A few hours of training, and then I had to clean Ms. Lanz's office."

"A few hours?" Ramira said as her eyes widened, "That's quite an achievement to be given the okay to work—"

"I have no idea why, but—" Lurai interrupted, and, biting her lip, she continued to say, "I think the muscle memory is still there from years of this. I honestly didn't think I was moving that fast at all, but it was enough."

Ramira looked over towards Lurai with saddened eyes and placed her hand over Lurai's hand, "It's okay. I'm glad that our Lurai is looking out for you."

Lurai sighed with a smile, "Yeah. I know she is. I hope that one day I—"

Lurai was interrupted as the curtain to their home was pushed forward by two pairs of small arms, followed by a set of panting young boys. Ramira and Lurai laughed together as the boys fell on their backs, heaving heavily. Kamai entered shortly after them shaking his head towards the two of them.

"The boys wanted to race home, but well—" Kamai laughed at the boys, "we can't let the guards see that much excess energy, so I made them run up and down the street twice."

"I won!" Lykas shouted out in response to Kamai.

"No way! I—I did!" Cial shouted out through his panting.

"How about you both get ready for a bath, hm?" Ramira said as she motioned towards Lurai, "Would you mind starting the fire in the washroom? Take a log from the wall and use the same spell I did earlier, okay?"

Lurai nodded as she walked towards the log pile, "Alright." She grabbed a log and headed for the washroom. As she walked through the curtain, she was met with darkness.

"Lait," Lurai said as she snapped her fingers, and as she did, a large flame emitted from her finger, at least three sizes larger than Ramira's flame, and engulfed her hand. The flame didn't hurt, but it was much stronger than she expected. She gasped out loud, which brought Kamai rushing to the curtain behind her.

"Everything—" He went to say, but then his eyes shot open as he pulled the curtain open and saw her hand engulfed in the flame, "No no! Remember what I said earlier, don't shorten your life!

Lurai turned to him with an expression of shock on her face, which stopped him from speaking. She immediately put the flame out, which left them both in the darkness. Lurai breathed out as she spoke again, snapping her fingers, "Lait."

The flame shot forward from her fingertip and engulfed her hand as before, leaving Kamai speechless before her. Lurai set the log down under the large washing basin and then used her engulfed hand to light the fire. As the room quickly lit up, she turned back to face Kamai, but he had closed the curtain before her.

She pulled on a lever near the wall that let the water flow in from a source outside until the basin was decently full. She then turned towards the curtain and walked through it. As Lurai walked out, Kamai and Ramira were staring at her, Lurai blushed red as she gained newfound embarrassment.

"I—I guess I don't know how to control my magic very well yet. I'm so—" Lurai said with a slight tremble

"It's not that." Ramira said with a smile, "Magic control isn't something we can't do."

"So, what is this then?" Lurai asked, "I tried to focus on the magic in my mind before casting, but it seems to always come out stronger than I need."

"I don't think it's out of control, my light," Ramira said as she looked towards Kamai. "We don't know what to think actually."

"It was kinda sudden—" Lurai went to say, but her stomach grumbled loudly, which left her even redder than before.

Everyone began to laugh as Kamai stepped forward, "Let's not worry about it tonight. Let's just wash up and have dinner. Why don't you wash up first, Lurai?"

"But we go to—"Lykas went to say before his mouth was covered by Ramira.

"Your father will bathe with you boys, tonight. Your sister needs to breathe after her first day back."

Lykas frowned but nodded as he sort of understood.

"I'll make it up to you, Lykas. I'll tell you a story tonight." Lurai said with a smile as she turned towards the tattered curtain, "I'll be quick."

Lurai, dropping her smile to a more pensive expression, stripped off her dress and entered the tub, which was heated up enough to be warm. Lurai sighed as she looked down at her body in the somewhat-murky water, and as she raised her hand to her face, she found herself in a moment of reflection as she saw droplets falling into the tub of water. For the first time since she became an elf, Lurai let her tears fall down her face as silently as she could.

"Just what am I..."