Study, Study, Study

Once again, the research turned up nothing useful. It was a little frustrating. Thankfully, at least it had not afflicted him since the day he had arrived in the capital.

But he had no idea what would set it off, so he was not too sure how much to worry about it happening again, or if there was a way to combat it.

It was rather disconcerting knowing there was a spell on him that could cause him to faint at any time. But there was not much he could do about it.

So he felt a bit down when he headed to bed that night. Elswyth took his hand as he walked slowly to his room.

Her voice was actually rather soothing, "Don't worry about it too much. I won't let you get hurt."

"Thanks." He laughed and patted her arm. "I am rather lucky to have such a good friend."

"Yeah, you are." She smirked. "I think you should sleep on it. Maybe it will be clearer in the morning."

"You are probably right." Heron paused at his door, "Thanks El."

She smiled at him and shooed him into his bedroom. He fell onto his bed and frowned. He really had no idea how to deal with this.

He felt like he probably should write home… but he wasn't sure what to write.

'Hey…I'm under a spell but don't worry cause I'm fine.' He cringed just thinking how that would go over.

And he could not really talk about his new friends either. Kur was a wizard and Elswyth was, well, Elswyth. While he liked her, he knew that her dislike of royalty would go both ways with his father. Serendiah might not mind it, but Jarenkul did not care too much. If someone wanted to dislike the crown, so long as they did not openly rebel, it was fine.

He eventually fell asleep. There were no nightly disturbances that night.

He woke up feeling much better. He did his morning routine and left his bedroom. Elswyth was waiting outside his door for him. "Sleep well, Heron?" She asked with a smile.

"Well enough." He said. "What about you?"

"Yeah." She grinned, "You going to be doing more research today?"

"Of course. I really need to figure out what sort of magic might be affecting me."

"Isn't it hard to say when the spell is messed up? What if it's a new spell."

"While it could be, I really hope it isn't." Heron had tried not to think of that possibility. It would be extremely hard to deal with if that was the case. Cause there would be no reference point.

After breakfast he went back to studying. It crossed his mind that if the rumors he had heard were true that the Carendlus Court Sorcerer would probably have been very helpful at figuring this out. But Jarenkul was some distance from Carendlus and…well. Yeah. That might not go well. And he wanted to see if he couldn't figure this out on his own in the first place.

So, they had at the books in their own slow way. It was slow work and was not really yielding results that he could see. But he was sure sooner or later they would hit on some clue at least.

Kur was rather silent as he worked across from Heron and Elswyth. Again he noticed him pick up that notebook and jot down in it with that oddly goofy grin he often would get. He wondered what was in that notebook but did not pry. It seemed personal.

Again there was no progress, at least not before lunch. They ate with Serendiah who seemed preoccupied with something and then went back to studying. Their studying continued on, late into the afternoon and then into the evening when they broke for supper.

Supper was rather quiet. Kur was still reading. Serendiah raised an eyebrow but did not say anything to her ward. Heron really felt too tired to say anything and Elswyth was just being rather quiet.

Heron trudged to bed afterwards. This went on for the next several days uninterrupted. Except Tira dropped by two days later, and Kur put aside his books for a bit to cater to his visitor.