An Ocean of Lies (AFOS II)

Chapter 8: Jo

Jo looked under his bed, under her bed. Alaric's clothes were on the floor, he had been fully clothed when she left not thirty minutes ago. He couldn't have gone far, naked, without anyone noticing him, right? He had to be there, somewhere. Roisin and Ana waited by the door, the last one looked irritated. Were all old women in her life so contemptuous? The wardrobe was big enough to fit him, tall and bulky as he was. When she opened the doors, a crouched, naked Alaric greeted her with big, teary eyes. Roisin walked towards them, peeked through the door.

"Is he broken?" Roisin whispered rather loudly at Jo. Alaric flinched. "There was nothing strange in that potion I gave you, I promise," she bit her thumb.

"Hey, eyes up," Jo said.

Roisin turned around, biting her lips. Yes, yes. She was hitting that. Not the time to brag, of course. She needed to cover him up and figure out what was wrong with him. Maybe he was sleepwalking. Her heart thumped fast, the air got really thin suddenly. She needed to focus, she couldn't help Alaric if she allowed herself to worry too much. She had to keep it together. Her brain kept coming up with stupid jokes, she had to fight her mouth to keep them in. Joking wouldn't help him either. There had to be a middle ground. Deep breaths.

She wrapped Alaric on a blanket, then helped him sit on his bed. She cupped his face between her hands, looked into his eyes. The firedust lamp needed a little shake, the light was too dim. Roisin took a hint, she made sure the room was well lit, Alaric's amber eyes became perfectly visible. His pupils looked fine, but his stare was lost. He was shaking, but didn't have a fever. He didn't look sick, other than that. He wasn't pale, his cheeks were perfectly rosy, not flushed. His eyes were a little glassy, maybe for lack of blinking. She waved in front of him, but he was unresponsive.

"Ana, could you take a look? Could it be a reaction to the potion Roisin gave him? I swear, if you broke him, like you said, you won't have to worry about your crew throwing you off the ship," she narrowed her eyes at her. She meant it. Roisin hid mockingly behind the mage, who, apparently, didn't take Jo's threat at heart either.

The old lady placed her hands over Alaric's head, on his shoulders, over his chest. She took something from a pouch in her pocket, put it under his nose. He sneezed, snapping back to consciousness.

"Alaric, how are you feeling?" Jo rushed to him, held his hands, his arms. She kissed his cheeks. Alaric hugged her tight, he trembled.

"Great, I could go for a jog, do some pushups," he laughed coarsely.

"What happened? Can you remember?" she whispered.

"I woke up, you weren't here. I heard music, like a hum, loud, it wouldn't go away. Deafening. Like having your head underwater in the middle of a storm. Then it's a blur. My skin burned like it had ants underneath, my head felt like it was going to explode. It wouldn't go away," he sighed. "Then I don't know, I guess I hid in the wardrobe? Creators," he noticed his nakedness. He covered himself up further with a pillow, blushing.

"It wasn't the potion, it was just passiflora, chamomile, ginger, some anti-inflammatory spices from Fonterra. A bit of magic to bind it all together, Ana herself makes those, none has ever gotten sick from them," she bit her thumb.

"It could've been the activation spell," Alaric said. "My body is probably adjusting. We were supposed to go through a ritual, do some ceremonial tasks— we weren't told what they entailed, though. All very mysterious, as usual. Laurentius didn't know, probably. I didn't think they had a reason to be, I honestly thought they were just a bunch of annoying rituals. Or maybe I'm just, ugh—" he winced. "I can still hear it. It's coming back. The hum."