Anna Stasia's Arc

Chapter 2 of 3

The door swung inward before Anna Stasia could step back. Warm light poured out. She had knocked without knowing if she'd be welcomed, and now there was no choice but to face whoever lived here. The three-headed hound trotted past her legs into the cottage like it belonged there. Anna Stasia followed. Inside, glass tubes climbed the walls. A long table held beakers of green, blue, and violet liquid. Steam hissed from a coiled pipe. A cauldron sat in the corner, its sides carved with leaves and vines. A woman with bright pink hair bent over the table, both gloved hands wrapped around a bubbling flask. She did not look up. "Hello," Anna Stasia said. "I'm sorry. Your dog brought me here." "Not now." The woman held the flask steady. The liquid inside turned from blue to a sick yellow. "It's running. Don't touch anything." Anna Stasia stayed by the door. She watched the woman pour the yellow liquid into the vine-carved cauldron. It hissed and threw off a thin ribbon of smoke. "I need a teacher," Anna Stasia said. "I'm an elf, but I can't use magic. I don't know how any of this works. Please. I have nowhere else to go." "Bella." The woman said her own name without turning. "And I don't teach." She reached for a small vial and tipped three drops into the cauldron. The smoke went white. "But you're doing magic right now." "Alchemy. Not the same." Bella watched the cauldron like it might run away. "Magic comes from inside you. This comes from the table. Elves get magic for free. I don't." Anna Stasia stepped closer. "I don't get it for free. I've tried. Nothing happens." Bella glanced at her for the first time. Her eyes moved once, up and down, then back to the cauldron. "Then you're broken, or untrained. Either way, not my problem." The cauldron hissed louder. The white smoke darkened. Bella's shoulders locked. "No. No, no." "What's wrong?" "The stabilizer." Bella grabbed a rag and reached for the vessel. "It's turning. Get down." Anna Stasia didn't think. She grabbed the vine-carved cauldron by its cool handles and swung it away from Bella, toward the open door. It burst as she moved. A wet green cloud slapped the wall. The blast knocked Anna Stasia to the floor. Her ears rang. The three heads of the hound barked at once. Smoke cleared. Green sludge dripped from the ceiling. Anna Stasia sat up, coughing, her red hair coated in it. Bella stood untouched. She looked at the ruined cauldron, then at Anna Stasia on the floor. "You pulled it toward the door," Bella said. "That was fast." She set down the rag. "Fine. You can stay. You clean, you fetch, you don't touch a running batch." She frowned at the dripping wall. "And I'll watch why your magic won't come. Someone has to."