Brigitta: part III (end)

Brigitta: part 3

New to this story?
Read Brigitta: part I and part II.

“Help me clear this up, Brigitta.”, mother said. They took the cups, plates and root brew pot back to the kitchen. “Well that was quite a commotion now wasn’t it?” Brigitta made a consenting sound. Her mother arranged the dishes in the sink, took out a small bowl and filled it with ice chips from the freezer.

She sprinkled some of the chips over the dishes while muttering under her breath. Brigitta felt a tiny surge of magic as the dishes started cleaning themselves. She stared at them listlessly. A hand gently stroked her head. “What’s on your mind baby girl?”, mother said. 

Brigitta answered without looking up, “I’m so useless here!”. “Brigitta! No one is ever useless, what a thing to say. Look at me, look at me now.” Reluctantly she turned to face her mum. “I will not have you thinking so little of yourself you hear me?” “But it’s true! I can’t do any snow magic, I can’t even hear the ice anymore, I’ll never be able to do any of the spells you can!”, Brigitta burst into tears. 

“No one is saying you have to know the same spells I do. You don’t have to force yourself so much.”, mother replied. “Then what am I supposed to do?”, she pleaded. “Well… Your father and I will figure something out. Now stop worrying and go to bed. You look exhausted.”, mother said. 

It was true. Her arms and legs had gotten heavy. Her head felt like it was ready to roll of her shoulders. Brigitta went to bed feeling tired but unable to fall asleep. Even calling on her lavender plant didn’t help. She lay awake listening to the sounds of the house. It was near morning when she finally slept.

A few days later  Brigitta came home to find master Dellingr in the living room. “Hello Brigitta, how have you been?”, he said. “Hello, I’m fine thanks, how have you been?”, she replied. “I’ve been learning about Ice Magic. It’s quite fascinating to see how much your people can manage using a single element.”
“Do you always use all four elements when casting spells?”, she said.

“I often do, though the amount in which each element is needed can vary. Have you noticed anything different since we did the test?”, he asked. Brigitta cocked her head to the side and frowned while chewing her lip. “Um, I guess, no, that’s not it… Uh, well it’s easier to hear my plants now and…” “And?”, Dellingr prompted her.

“Uh, well it’s like… I can sort of feel it now, when the others are doing magic I mean. I couldn’t before.” Dellingr nodded. “You’ve awakened to the elements so you’ll be sensing the water more clearly now.” “Am I sensing the water even when it’s in snow or ice?”, Brigitta said.

“Definitely. The state of an element doesn’t hide the element itself. On top of that, you’ve practiced trying to hear the ice. So you’re already aware of the element’s presence. Most of the time when elementals overlook one, it’s because they’re searching for what they expect to find. They don’t really allow their magic sense to tell them which elements are there. Do you understand what I’m trying to say?”

“I think so.” Brigitta said. “Ah Brigitta, I thought I’d heard you come home. Look master Dellingr, I’ve found the albums. This one has Vilborg’s family going back from her great-grandmother till an ancestor five generations before that. The other has my family in roughly the same time. I think that should be enough?”, father said. He handed one of the big dusty books over to Dellingr.

Brigitta saw the two more recent family albums lying on the dresser. “Why do you need our family albums?”, she said. “A master must always ask himself where the magic comes from. We’ve been looking through the names and listed magics in your recent albums."

"No one’s listed any kind of elemental, material or direct magic. Yet your father is a moss fanatic and you have Growing Magic. Two indicators for magic that doesn’t appear in the immediate family lineage is something I must investigate.”, Dellingr said.

“But dad doesn’t do Moss Magic, do you?”, Brigitta said. She looked at her father wondering if he’d been hiding some of his magic. “No Brigitta, I don’t do Moss Magic.”, father said. “I shouldn’t think so, since you’ve only been taught how to do Ice Magic. But I suspect you’ve had moss growing near your home ever since you were the same age Brigitta is now, perhaps even a little younger?”, Dellingr said.

“Well yes, but that goes for lots of houses doesn’t it?”, father said. “I’ve been going around the town. Your house has a lot more moss than the others even though the conditions for moss aren’t better here than anywhere else. With the two of you living here, it could either be your doing or your daughter making it grow because you like it so much. I can’t tell which it is.” Dellingr said.

Brigitta’s father looked puzzled. “Well, I’ll go make us some root brew. Master Dellingr will be staying for dinner so I suggest we let him study our family albums until your mother gets home. I’m sure you have some sort of homework?”, father said. Brigitta nodded and went into her room. 

She had been given a plant guide and told to memorize at least 100 species by the end of the first term. It would be one of her tests in place of the usual Snow Magic tests. When her mother came home they called her into the living room. Brigitta had butterflies in her stomach. 

“We’ve decided to give Cledwyn a go. At least for a year.”, mother said. “Your mother will be going with you for the first three months. After that, I’ll come see you and she will come back here. Depending on how things go, we might move there altogether.”, father continued. 

“You will be staying at the school during the week, but you can come stay with me on the weekends.”, mother said. Brigitta didn’t know what to say. She looked from one parent to the other. “Are you selling the house then?”, she asked. “We haven’t decided yet. Maybe we’ll take on a tenant, we’ll just… have to see.”, father said.

Brigitta nodded. “Uh… when, when will we be going?”, she asked. Her parents looked at master Dellingr. “I’m thinking of waiting till the new year. That way, you’ll have time to work on your Cledwyeg while your parents can find a place to stay.”, he said. “So we’ll have three months to get ready. How are we going to get there?”, Brigitta said.    
    
“I can Relocate us from here to master Aislinn’s house.”, Dellingr said. “But what about our luggage? It would take a lot of snow to move all that we would need.”, mother said. “See that’s the beauty of using an element in its entirety: you get more power from smaller amounts. Once we fix a date, I can arrange for someone to receive the luggage. I’ll Relocate that first and then we’ll follow.”, Dellingr said.

Having settled that, her parents prepared dinner. Brigitta took the opportunity to ask master Dellingr some questions about ‘The elements of Elemental Magic’. There was a lot of confusing magical theory to get through before  even the simplest spell work was mentioned. Over dinner master Dellingr told them stories about living in Cledwyn.

There would be less snow but lots more rain. Spring and summer were stretched out longer and their tribes were named after fruits and vegetables. Brigitta tried to imagine living there but she couldn’t, it was all too foreign.

Before master Dellingr left, he gave her a book called ‘The materials of Material Magic’. “There, now you have the set so you can prepare for when you start school.”, he said. “But it’s in Cledwyeg, I don’t recognize all these big words!”, Brigitta said. “That’s why we’re giving you time to prepare. I will be giving your classes in Elemental Magic and I will explain things for you in our own tongue. However, master Aislinn will be teaching her classes in Cledwyeg.”

“I know three months may seem like a long time, but it’ll be gone before you know it so study hard.”, he said. Though it still felt weird to be the only one in class doing completely different assignments, Brigitta took his words to heart. She read the books and studied Cledwyeg.

Fortunately, some of her friends in master Lükka’s class were quite good with languages. They helped her as much as they could. It was strange thinking she would be leaving soon and staying away for at least a year. When the new year came and master Dellingr was once again at their doorstep, she didn’t feel ready at all.

It had been a season of goodbyes for Brigitta. On the last day before winter break, master Nýr had arranged a sort of farewell party with her classmates. Her friends from master Lükka’s class had been there too. At home, her parents had invited friends and family to come say goodbye just a few days ago.

Their town was not big. Everywhere she went, some person she knew would stop to ask her about moving to Cledwyn. Brigitta wasn’t used to getting all this attention. Most people had found a way to politely ignore her ever since she had proved to be a slow pupil in master Högna’s class for Ice Babies. 

In fact, the only one who wasn’t treating her any differently was her cousin Alrún. When she had heard she had simply said “I told you your magic would come. It’s just a different sort than we were expecting that’s all.” Brigitta wished she could be as calm as Alrún. She was terrified of failing with her new masters and disappointing her parents.

All this was going through her mind on the day master Dellingr came to get her. Their suitcases had been taken from the hallway into the living room and stacked together. It was just the four of them standing there with the luggage. The idea of her father being left on his own, almost made her cry.

“Right, now, if you’ll pay attention Brigitta, this will be your first lesson. Tell me, which element is best used for a travelling spell such as Relocating?” “Uh, well, it would have to be available both on the site you’re leaving and the site you’re going to so I guess it could be earth or air?”

“Good thinking. Now out of those two which would you say is the more stable element?” “Oh, eh, let’s see, there was something about earth being a bit particular. It has to be the same soil or the spell could turn out entirely different right? So then air would be more stable.”

“Very good. Air is also the quickest element to use since it requires the least amount of preparation and unlike earth, you don’t need to do any bonding with air. Now grab something to write with. Observe and think of questions to ask me later.”

Master Dellingr turned his attention to the suitcases while Brigitta hurriedly got out a pen and a piece of paper. As he held up his hands in front of him, Brigitta could see tiny swirls of air around them. It was as if each hand was covered in its own whirlwind. Then, the master placed his hands on the pile of luggage. She could see the wind spread out from his hands to cover all of it.

A bright path appeared on the carpet in front of the luggage and started to move. It got underneath the suitcases until it was touching the bottom of every single one. Dellingr pushed and the luggage was gone. The path was fading when a small apple appeared in its place. The master took the apple and held it up for Brigitta to see. “This is a message to let us know the luggage arrived where we wanted it to.”

He looked around at her parents. Brigitta’s father took her mother in a fierce embrace and held out an arm for his daughter. They huddled together. Brigitta breathed in the air of her father’s sweater trying to remember it. “I’ll come see you in three months, it won’t be long.”, he said.

When they broke loose master Dellingr had moved up behind them. He laid one hand on Brigitta’s shoulder and the other on her mother. Brigitta felt the air moving around his hand. A tingle went through her as he worked the spell and the bright path opened in front of them. A push and suddenly she was standing outside.

It was an overcast day but the air felt warmer than it had been back home. They were standing on a gravel path outside a large two storey house sitting in a green field where it was surrounded by a number of smaller one storey houses. Beyond the houses she could just see the dark outline of a short tree with it branches spread out wide. Something about that was vaguely familiar.

Dellingr ushered them through the garden gate. The door of the two storey house opened. A woman with skin like snow and rose coloured cheeks stood in the opening. Her hair, dark as dried pine cones, was braided into a thick coil over one of her shoulders.

“Brigitta, mrs. Mulsted, meet master Aislinn.”, Dellingr said. The woman smiled, “Welcome both of you.” They shook hands and Brigitta stepped over the threshold into her new life.