Chapter 44
After cleaning his room and making up his bed, Alistar sat on the cushioned chair by his desk with his mother’s locket in hand. Lately, he had been growing worried that one of the house servants might happen upon his magic crystal, and he feared what could happen if they came into contact with it. As luck would have it, it fit comfortably within the hidden compartment of the locket, and the chances of it coming free without his notice would be next to none once the latch was safely in place.
Every man should have a place to hide something special, don’t you think, Alistar?
The words of his father resounded within his heart as he tucked the locket beneath his neckline and set off to meet his family for breakfast. He was dressed in the clothes Anice had worn the day before, which were freshly laundered. Once upstairs, he detoured through the art hall and spared a few minutes to appreciate his mother’s painting, the one that he and Anice had argued over on the day they first met. Apparently, she had painted it before she made the move to the Baldor Empire, a testament to her temperament at the time.
Once his hunger got the better of him, he resumed his walk to the dining hall, bumping into Patricia along the way. She was ambling along with a basket of clean linens, her eyes sunken and her complexion pallid.
"Good morrow, Alistar."
"Good morrow, Patricia," he responded, concern colouring his tone. "Is everything okay?"
"I’ll be fine. It’s just the aftereffects of the crystal rupture from yesterday." She shook her head. "What was Master Caedmon thinking, handling such a powerful crystal?"
Alistar relieved her of her basket, wondering what she would think if she knew that the crystal had only been the size of a thumbprint. "How does a crystal become ruptured?"
"I don’t know the specifics," she shrugged, black hair swaying with each step. "But I think it happens when the energy within a magic crystal is released all at once. Only those gifted in the arcane can manipulate the energy within such crystals, so something must have happened when your uncle tried to do so. Oh, and thank you for carrying the basket. You’re a dear."
Smiling slightly as they headed to the third floor, he asked, "So the energies left the crystal and ran wild throughout the house? And that’s why you’re not feeling well?"
"Indeed," she said. "Aside from myself, only Madeline, Stason, and a few others are fit to work today, and I should say that we’re hardly fit at all."