Abdication of the Fourth

Chapter Eight

Thana felt like crap. Her head was pounding and her mouth felt like something had died inside it.  What she wouldn't give for a glass of water to magically appear on her nightside table. Just as she was wondering where Tim was when she needed him, there was a knock on her bedroom door followed by Tim's voice.

"Thana?"

With a groan that was meant to be a greeting, Thana flipped off her blankets and padded over towards the door. As expected, Tim was standing there with what could only be considered his look of concern - a slightly furrowed brow.

"Hiiiiiii," she said, dragging it out as long as she could in order to indicate just how badly she felt. Tim, however, simply rolled his eyes and pointed to the bottle of rum sitting on the coffee table.  Damn.

"You are certainly not the first person in the world to over do it in their first moments of freedom, Thana.  Though I do hope you will learn from this experience.  You're not safe if you don't have your full capacities due to drinking."

Thana frowned taking in the concerned face of her guardian.  Everyone drinks, she thought. Even Tim had had a whisky or two in his time. Still, thinking of the lady from yesterday she could see his point.  In the meantime Tim had left her standing in the doorway to examine the living room, looking into every nook and cranny. They had barely been there a week, what did he expect to have changed?

Whatever he was looking for, he seemed satisfied with what he saw, though he glanced at Kevin's closed door as if he'd  give up a lot of money to get in there and check things out. If Thana didn't know better she'd say that he was going to ask! Thankfully he remained silent on that regard, speaking up only to invite her to breakfast.  Her stomach couldn't decide whether it wanted to eat or not, but it seemed very clear that Tim wasn't wanting her to go for the food.  He wanted to talk to her.  Alone.

With a quick shower Thana was dressed and ready to go, when she walked into the middle of a conversation between her best friend and her guardian.  Leaving the two of them alone was always fraught for her, as Tim was slightly weird and Kevin rarely took things seriously, the two of them just didn't mix.  At least she never had to worry about them teaming up on each other.

Pulling her blonde hair back into an elastic and slipping on her sandals, Thana gave Tim a look of expectation.  He rarely kept her waiting.  She could hear only a few words of his conversation with kevin, something about blowing out a flame once it started burning.  Oh god.  He was trying to teach him how to burn sage.

"I know how to do that Tim, and I've already done it here.  You don't need to pester Kevin about it too."

"It's not pestering," Kevin interrupted. "I like burning stuff." 

Frowning Tim started to correct the younger man with a "Now see here..." but Thana decided that was the best time to pull him out the door for breakfast, casting an apologetic look to Kevin.

She led them down the street to the local greasy spoon diner, one of the many parts of the neighbourhood she loved.  There was food and music and culture all over the place.  It was unfortunate that most of the people were not so friendly.  They weren't mean, per se, but they just never smiled or said hello.  It annoyed her, though she ought to be used to it, attracting attention had never been her strong suit.

Once armed with coffee and bacon Thana started feeling human again.  Hangovers, nothing a little salt, grease and caffeine can't fix.

"Are you listening to me?" Tim interrupted her thoughts so abruptly that she had to admit that she wasn't paying him much attention.  Flushing, she put her fork down and turned her focus to him. Almost instantly she regretted it.  He was talking about herbs.  Again.  Ok, so Tim was a practicing wiccan.  That was explanation she had come up with years ago, and besides one odd episode involving epic cringe faces, he hadn't ever bothered to deny it.

'It's important that you listen,' he would always say.  And she always tried.  It's just that the subject matter was so boring.  Why learn all about the supposed magickal properties of plants when she could ? he knew the common ones - mostly from pure exposure and repetition.

Acorn was luck and protection, Agar Agar was for joy and success. Ash was good for water spells and to prevent drowning. Bamboo, hex breaking, birch, exorcism and protection, cumin, protection, curry, protection.  Hmmm.  She was starting to see a theme here.  Ok, so perhaps Tim was a wee bit paranoid.

"Why are you trying to teach me so much about protective herbs and plants?" Tim looked up, briefly silenced. "What? I told you I pay attention!"

A small smile crept across Tim's face, a rarity, that.  Thank the others, the girl had been listening! Hopefully she would never need the knowledge he attempted to impart on her, but one could never be too prepared. The Next was always at risk of being misused; by the Current, by humanity, by anyone seeking to gather their power for themselves.  Thankfully Thana had no awareness of how much power she harnessed, at least not yet.

No, as long as he could keep everything under control for another twenty-five years or so, everything would be fine.

"There was an old lady at our door the other night," Thana broke into his thoughts, as timely as ever. "Kevin let her in to use the telephone.  She was only there a few minutes but I thought you'd want to know."

Tim practically spit out his coffee.  He was relieved she'd told him but now worry seemed to clutch at his lungs.  The rumor was that the Current wanted to be done, to end his tasks and burdens, but the only way to do that was to ensure the Next was fully ensconced on the throne, so to speak.  No Current had ever left before their designated time was done, usually at 500 years or so.  With the rumors that abounded Tim was quietly ashamed that the Current had been his charge. He had readied that reaper and it seemed he had a lot to answer for.