Life continued on. Waiting for big news is never easy and we were antsy to hear back from the prince. But after the first month of waiting, like with most things, it kind of fell into the background as other matters took the forefront. The next big Bell family crisis was the King's fortieth birthday, which of course involved a massive ball at the palace- but Eden and I were kids and it was an adults-only kind of thing so it was less our problem and more our parents'. 

If you don't remember, our mother wasn't very well integrated into Casselian high society, so this was going to be a major ordeal for her. In fact, I could tell she was downright dreading this event. As good a dancer as she was, she had never studied ballroom and became bedridden before her training to be a proper noblewoman was ever complete. She'd be walking into a lion's den unprepared. Then again, for once that wasn't really our problem to deal with. It's not like I'd learned ballroom yet, so I couldn't help her even though I kind of wished I could.

As for the new things in my life, things had gotten pretty busy. My procedure on the baker for her vertigo had worked and I had gotten some new street cred for the success. It had started with her asking if I could look at her neighbour who was experiencing back weakness after giving birth. I guided her through some yoga poses and from there, my referrals came pouring in, to an extent where I started going into town much more often. In this medieval-type world, everyone had some kind of ache or pain that they just thought until this point was a normal part of the rest of their life.

Eden came too, but he didn't always accompany me. He started hanging out more with Edgar. When a new bookstore opened up across the street from the bakery, Edgar had fallen head over heels for the shop clerk's beautiful, blonde thirteen-year-old daughter who spent her days sitting in a wicker chair by the storefront window with her nose in a book. Eden began teaching him how to read and write so he could impress her. Some of the other kids we played soccer with and some kids who were friends with the boys we played soccer with started approaching him with basic math questions as they were gearing up to begin helping their parents in the market.

With no real need for payment, we kind of became the pillars of community service in our town.

It was a Tuesday and I was making my rounds, there were a few people I needed to check up on from the week before. Eden was off being caught in the sitcom-like love story of the baker's son and the girl next door. This week's installment was the bakery hosting an elaborate fundraiser to pay for the girl's younger brother to travel to the capitol to get blessed by the church to remove a curse he received from a demon in a forest. Yes. Apparently, that's a thing. Every time you almost forget this is a fantasy world.

I'm not sure why they needed so many convoluted schemes just for Edgar to tell a girl he liked her, but the work he was putting in was helping him grow as a person so who was I to judge?

I had finally met the girl, Maddie, the week prior when they brought me in to see if I could help her sick brother given my track record for 'healing' unusual ailments. When they said he was cursed I just thought it was the usual medieval mumbo jumbo where they use 'dark magic' to explain away science they just didn't understand yet. I was wrong. I took one step into the dimly lit room to see the boy exorcist-style spider walking towards me before I slammed the door shut and noped my way out of there.

Horror is not the genre of this story, thank you very much.

I told them I'd help out with his inevitable back problems after that first little issue of demonic possession was resolved, because his spine did not look conditioned to bend that way. Not like I'd trained mine.

I'll admit it took a few days to sleep properly after that.

Anyway, so there I was, walking down the center of town, without a care in the world, deliberately taking the long way bypassing Main Street as to not go anywhere near the bookstore because, as I said: F that. I'm here to live out some wholesome Little House on the Prairies vibes not the Haunting of Hill House. 

 I saw a familiar figure much too late.

My father.

Not good.

He was busy talking to a merchant though so I realized I could probably sneak away behind him. Honestly, we weren't that close so his chances of even recognizing me from a peripheral glance were low.

I quietly tried to make my way past.

The merchant was talking animatedly. "My Lord, this town is so grateful for everything the Bell family has done of late. Not every village can boast that their Earl regularly checks in on the general public."

"There is nothing to be grateful for," Father replied, "all we've done is resolve the issues that rose up from our own oversight. I just want to make sure things continue to run smoothly as they should have all along."

"Well, yes..." The man said hesitantly, "But no one can dispute the charity your son and daugh-"

The merchant caught sight of me from the corner of his eye as I furiously shook my head no behind my father's back.

"What about my children?" Father asked.

"Well, I mean, there's one of them right now," he said, pointing at me.

I sent him a betrayed scowl.

Father rounded. "Briar?" he asked in disbelief.

"Heeeey Dad," I said awkwardly. "I'm just helping on some errands," I looked around weakly, "Now where did that Velma go? I was just with her and then I saw you and got distracted. Oh good golly gee, my little child brain... you know how we are sometimes, like dogs seeing squirrels."

"Your children are a Goddess given gift to this town," the man said, unfazed by the probable trouble he just got this holy gift into.

Father nodded, not taking his eyes off of me. "Thank you, I best be having a word with my daughter."

The man bid his farewells and dad approached me.

"Fancy. Meeting. You. Here," I said, punctuating each word a little too much.

"Yes, fancy that," he said, continuing to stare at me. "What kind of errands did Velma have you running?"

"The usual," I responded.

"Briar," he said.

"Father," I said.

"Velma is visiting her family out in the countryside, I gave her permission this morning."

I grimaced unsure of what to do next since it was hard to predict what he was going to do next. Or honestly, how he'd react to anything, I mostly just stayed off his radar until this point.

"Well if it isn't little Lady Briar!" A woman's voice called in delight. The blacksmith's wife rushed over. "My husband has been getting so much better with your help! The pain in his shoulder has been less than it was when I met him!"

My father looked at me quizzically.

"He's got a ton of chronic occupational joint issues including some minor tendonitis" I explained as if we were having a casual conversation and smiled at the woman. "Did he get around to replacing his anvil to one with better rebound like I told him to?"

"It wasn't easy," she sighed, "It had been in his family for generations. I'm probably going to have to find a way to repurpose it for sentimentality reasons but he's still not that happy about it, he says they don't make anvils like they used to."

I shook my head. "Yes. That's the point. What is with people and thinking the older something is, the better? They don't make them like they used to because they make them better. His anvil was too hard and brittle, I know iron sounds manlier but steel is the invention of the future. The bounce will do half his work for him and relive the stress on his tendons. It's literally why they started making anvils with steel."

Honestly. I am worried for this world where the best technology is considered the things forged thousands of years ago. Was society regressing? I heard that the palace had a whole arsenal of ancient weapons. Why were ancient people so much better at making things than us? Where is the innovation that propels humanity forwards?

She smiled, "You don't have to convince me Hunny, I'm all for anything you prescribe. You could tell me tomorrow poison is healthy, and I'd buy some."

"I mean..." I said thoughtfully, "Sometimes."

She glanced at the Earl. "By the way, who might you be?"

"Her father," He said.

"Oh my Goddess," she shrieked and quickly lowered into a ninety-degree bow, "My lord, I apologize! I did not recognize you!"

"It's fine," he said, "tell your husband the new sconces are lovely."

"I will," she promised, straightening back up. "And thank you for everything your daughter has done for us. You must be proud."

He wordlessly looked at me again as she retreated and I all but gulped.

"I get the sense you come here often," he said. He was just as stoic as Mom. I swear if they didn't both make each other miserable they'd be the match made from heaven. He still hadn't given me any indication of what amount of trouble I was in. This calm silence was somehow worse than being yelled at. I just wanted to know if I was grounded for the rest of my life or not.

"Well then," he finally said. "What business did you actually have in town?"

"I have some people to visit," I admitted ruefully. "I promised I'd help them out."

"Well a Bell always honours their promise," he said, deadpan.

Like you probably promised to love my mom in your wedding vows? I thought, surprisingly bitter. 

"Then I best be going," Was all I said and began to walk away. It was with disappointment that I realized he was following.

"What's your business in town?" I asked as we weaved through the bustling streets.

"It's my job to make sure the fief runs smoothly," he said. "I've been trying to take a more direct method of observation but I'm starting to think you might have a better understanding of the current life quality of the citizens."

"Huh," I said thoughtfully. "You're not really what I expected."

"A strange thing to say to your own father," he commented.

He continued to follow me through town and stuck around as I treated a teenager who was recovering from a long-term injury after his foot had been stepped on by a horse and later, the fruit stand vendor with knee issues. 

I had to hide how nervous I was with him watching silently over my shoulder.

I hid it well given that my clients were much more nervous than I even was to have the literal Lord of the fief just milling around their houses.

Finally, after I was all done, he asked the question I hadn't been expecting. "Briar, where is your brother?"

"Excuse me?" I asked.

"I spend many hours a week with him," he said, "Given the amount he talks about you, I know you two are close, and I always see you two scurrying around together. I do not believe he does not know you are here, and further, I do not believe he did not come here with you."

When I really thought about it, the jig was long up for my brother. Everyone in town had been mentioning his children. Plural.

"He's hosting a fundraiser," I mumbled, still feeling like I was selling my brother out anyway.

"Excuse me?" Father asked.

"He's helping the bakery hold a fundraiser to raise money to help the Bookseller's family," I said.

"Why is the Bakery involved?" He asked as if this was the most confusing part.

"Because this is a community," I said as if it were the most obvious answer ever. "Neighbours help neighbours."

"Take me to him," was all father said after a moment's thought.

I ruefully lead him to the bakery. When we approached, despite my better judgment, I glanced up at the bedroom window above the bookstore that belonged to the cursed brother. The light was flickering like some Godamn horror movie cliché. In reality, it was definitely because candlelight naturally flickers but that boy seriously creeped me out.

I looked away with a shutter.

"What's wrong?" Father asked.

"To be honest, the kid we're helping was cursed by something in the forest," I said. "The money is to get him blessed."

This was only necessary because churches require hefty "donations" for their services that no peasant could ever afford on their own. Seems wrong, but okay. I don't know what her teachings are anyway. I sent an accusatory look at the Goddess statue.

"And you're affected by the curse somehow?" He asked. "Do you think you have light magic?"

"No," I said. "It just plain old freaks me out that-"

I had turned to gesture at the window again only to see the grey-faced boy with the black sunken eyes staring right back at me, pressed up against the glass.

I reacted like a cat, all but hissing as I raced into the Baker's in fear. "WHAT THE FLIPPITY FLAPJACK EVERLASTING HELL," I cried, alerting absolutely every one of my arrival.

Maddie glanced at me as she pulled a tray of cookies out of the oven. "Oh, did my brother frighten you again?" She asked cheerfully.

"THAT WAS SOME CANDYMAN, STEPHAN KING, JUMPSCARE, BULL...poop," I said, still pumped on the adrenaline. "Come on people, Samara from The Ring is living next door and no one seems that concerned! There are kids that play on this street, me for instance!"

"I'm sorry if my brother scared you, Briar!" Maddie apologized, a little too happily. "By the way, look! Edgar showed me how to make chocolate chip cookies!"

I massaged my temples.

Eden peeked his head out of the backroom, "Hey Briar! The ice cream sandwiches are a hit! This was a good idea!" He froze in horror and my blood froze. I swear to God if I turned around and that demon boy was behind me, this whole thing was going to be unnecessary because I was going to run for that sharp-looking spatula on the counter and decapitate the little asshole.

"Father?" He asked.

Oh right, that.

_____________________________

Author Notes:

As always thank you so much for reading, and supporting this story. Now that more people are reading it's a lot easier to feel motivated to keep up on making content. I live off of seeing those little notification dots in the top corner of my screen and seeing that people are interacting with the story.

I needed that boy to be sick from something Briar couldn't cure so I was like, oh heck with it, let's just curse him, this world doesn't make sense anyway.... and now I'm having way too much fun with this plot point.

Today's Meg fact:

She is from an alternate timeline where Covid-19 never happened because I wrote chapter 1 RIGHT before the world fell apart and it was supposed to take place at the 2020 Summer Olympic Games in Tokyo.... which is no longer happening. In hindsight, her dying in a hospital from respiratory failure did not age well and now seems in bad taste too. So moral of the story, never write about the future. Even if it is the near future.