The Apprentice's Path: The Alchemist #1 by Stacey Keystone

Author:Stacey Keystone [Keystone, Stacey]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Ellauri Press
Published: 2020-05-22T22:00:00+00:00

Digging down intermittently into the rashers of bacon and the pancakes, generously slathered with butter and jam, I started to feel full quite quickly. In my usual state, dealing with all this food wouldn't be too hard, but in my current state, I couldn't eat another bite after two pancakes and four rashers of bacon. Mother, who just sat silently in front of me, after serving the table, putting the food in front of me, and even pouring the tea and milk into my cup, then said something for the first time.

"Don't get up until you eat everything."

Mother had never forced us to eat, considering that children will naturally eat as much as they need, and forcing them will distort their natural appetite. Of course, we didn't get dessert if we didn't eat the veggies, but we didn't have to eat the damn veggies. I usually ate the veggies, unless it was peas. I hate green peas. They're mushy and tasteless, and when you bite into them, you feel like a bomb of icky stuff exploded in your mouth.

But, maybe because I'm not a child, this time, she was dead serious. I looked at the plate without appetite. Maybe I could eat more pancakes if I just didn't add jam or butter, I decided. But, as I was about to take a bite of a pancake under mother's watchful eye, the doorbell rang.

"Are you expecting somebody?" I asked, quickly heading to the door. Mother rushed ahead of me.

"Nobody should see you in this state," she said. She had a point, so I stayed hidden behind the door as she opened it.

I couldn't see who was there, but I could see mother's expression. Shock. Disbelief. Anger.

"You!" she almost screamed. "It was you who put my daughter in trouble! You're the reason she returned looking like a zombie!"

"Like a zombie?" I heard the question and immediately recognized the voice. It was grandpa. What was he doing here, this early? I had sent him a letter, but if he was here today, he must have taken the next day's morning train to Crow Hill.

I stepped from behind the door, trying to grab mother's arm so she wouldn't physically attack grandpa. She glared at me but stepped back a bit.

"I created the situation myself," I said, trying to soothe her. "And I invited him to get help dealing with the situation."

"You invited him?" mother asked, now directing her fury at me. "Into my home?"

"Into our home," I said. "If you really feel I don't have any rights to this home, as the host, I will have to find him another place. And go there with him."

The threat seemed to work, although the look mother gave me very much indicated the conversation was not over. She stepped aside, letting grandpa, who had uttered nothing other than the first question.

He looked at me, and, as he assessed my skeletal face, his gaze going down to my hands and body, his eyes filled with worry.

"Good Heavens, Dana, what happened to you? You were fine just three weeks ago.

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