Briar

Ch. 3 The Beginning

The guests from the funeral stayed one more night, mostly because the majority of the attendees slept until noon. It was considered unseemly to leave so late in the day. However, with the leaving of the guests, the castle did not return to any sort of normality.
Jonas had no interest in taking over his master’s duties. He would not answer the majority of requests for his magical aid. The only way to get him was to plead friendship to Azzelbreth. These trips out were seen as an annoyance by Jonas who spent the majority of his time was in the library learning the deep magics. Slowly he was becoming more and more powerful. He would shut the door of his study and not come out for days. Mrs. Happershap would have to bring meals to his room which came back mostly untouched. He seemed to care about only one thing becoming a stronger wizard.
Everyone in Numberland thought it very odd that Rose did not smack Jonas out of this behavior. In the past she had never stood for this type of behavior, but truth was that their relationship had dramatically altered. For a while they completely avoided each other. It seemed that Rose had finally come to accept her life a servant which made her mother happy. But Rose was not happy. She seemed downright depressed. When Mrs. Happershap tried to talk to Jonas about it he got a dark look in his eye and turned away, back to his reading.
It wasn’t long before Rose decided to buck up. It wasn’t much fun being gloomy, doing nothing but her chores and actually listening to her parents. Slowly she got back into the swing of living. She learned again the joy of walking bare foot, picking roses with her bare hands, running through the wind. When she had returned to semi normality, she started talking to Jonas. First it was just a hello, then a little side talk, and finally talking about relevant things, like if he wanted chicken or lamb for dinner. Reading together. Going out together to see the first swim of the new frogs. Things seemed to be back to normal after a time. Only now each was little more careful of their words. Each held a burden in their heart.
They never talked about the night of Azzelbreth’s funeral. Rose had taken Jonas’s words as truth. He was one to always consider his words; there was little hope that they were not his real thoughts. Not that Rose was willing to test that hope. She was afraid to bring it up only to learn that he did indeed consider her nothing more than a servant, an annoyance to his studies. Jonas made out her silence as hate that he had insulted her in the worst way and had the audacity to kiss her. May be she had even started to blame him a little for Azzel’s death. Jonas only knew that he was not strong enough. Not strong enough to protect the people he loved. In truth, Rose only remembered the kiss as a dream, a favored dream at that. But those were feelings that a servant never discussed with her master.
Jonas’s skill and hermit ways soon became known to the higher population. With in two years, Jonas was generally considered the best wizard around. They even decreed him Jonas the Wise. Everyone wants the best especially when dealing with something as unpredictable and mysterious as magic. So they figured if Jonas would not come to them they would go to him. By the time Rose was 18, there was a steady stream to dignitaries through Numberland. This bothered Jonas to no end, as Rose was constantly forced to hear. But Rose was happy to have the diversion of people from the outside. At least with them she knew where she stood. The presence of these people also seemed to bother the other servants. Rose’s parents constantly tried to keep her away from the visitors. They were a little skittish with every new person that came into the castle and were a little annoyed with the heavier work load. The Fonderals just seemed to be getting crabbier as they got older.
People were in and out all the time. With an annoying little Rose to ask them annoying questions about their homeland. This was how things went until the year that Rose turned 19 when a guest decided to stay for longer than a few days.

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so this one is pretty short so it's just kinda a filler to get to the next bit, and just kind of explained what happened in their relationship. If it's not really clear will someone please tell me cause sometimes i just don't realize when I'm being confusing. +_+