38th Vortas 2718
There were precious few things that could set the young woman on the backfoot when it came to matters of an interpersonal nature. But her run-in with the liaison of Internal Affairs, followed by her apology to her brother had just about done it. Pleasance was given cause to consider much in the hours she’d spent among the two, learning much about the importance of blood relations, and how such things should not be abused or discarded as if they were passing acquaintances, however much animosity had arisen.
Yet, Pleasance had made her apology and attempt to patch things up with Arthur, and the word was his to give, if he wished to forgive her. Whatever he’d said to her in those moments of apology and mostly sincere regret, Pleasance could only hope he would forgive her. In any event, she had a growing interest in just what kind of magic Will had unleashed on Arthur’s mind, that’d put him in such a state of regressive fear and anguish. She wanted to understand what her blunt instrument of a minion had done to Arthur. Perhaps that would lead to understanding and finding her own way through to a more honest relationship with her brother. And if into that effort, she learned more about this strange and intriguing conversation of magic all the better.
After dressing in the dormitory the morning after the meeting and apology, she skipped out on breakfast, only taking a few bites of a biscuit before leaving the dorms, and finding her way out to the street.
She walked along the curve in the path, heading over toward the inner circle of Ameter dormitories, where the upper forms like she and her brother were housed. Arthur had only moved into Ameter this past year or the one before. She wasn’t sure. Pleasance had rebuffed many of his attempts to contact her in the intervening months, making excuses, or outright refusals. The young woman figured he would simply give up and figure that she had wanted nothing to do with him. Which she had. How odd that all it took to bring them back together was a malicious attack, targeting his deepest weakness and an aversion toward creepy crawlers.
She approached one of the lower classmen, who was idling in the hallway entrance. She lowered her head and approached him, her book satchel neatly held in her hands in front of her. "Do you know where Arthur's room is?"
The boy looked toward her, and shrugged. Then another, an older classmate chimed in, "I heard Arthur is in the infirmary. Something about spider bites?"
Pleasance glanced from one of them to the other, and then nodded, "I know, I was just meant to bring him something, from his room. A little keepsake. He's too frazzled to come to his room yet and they kept him overnight for observation... I'm his sister."
The expressions on their face turned from bemused at why an older girl would be seeking out Arthur, to dawning understanding. Then the older, 7th form student nodded and said, "His is on the upper third floor. Fourth door to the left."
Pleasance smiled at him, and nodded, "Thank you." Then she was on her way through the halls and up the stairwell.
She passed by a few doors on her way toward Arthur's abandoned room. Returning to the scene of the crime seemed like bad form. Something it was often said a textbook narcissistic idiot would do, but this was not for the purposes of a coverup or reliving the thrill of having done something. She was genuinely curious to see the state of Arthur's lodgings, and maybe nose through his things, while she was at it. This was just a care visit, to clean up his room and maybe bring him a favor to the infirmary afterward, if there was still time left in the breakfast period.
She cracked the door open just a bit, to see if anyone else was nosing around in his room. To her relief, it appeared entirely empty, and there was no field to give away an invisible mage. She stepped into the room and shut the door behind her. Once there, she felt a pang of atavistic shock. There were a few tokens there, left lying around. Things he'd presumably brought from home. But among these, one rose above them all in significance to her. Near the single bed, by the window sill, was a letter opener she'd filched from her parents when she was eight.
That he would take it with him to University seemed rather... odd? Stranger still that he would cling to it even after all her rebukes, attacks and insults. Perhaps this would be the last straw, that would prompt him to get rid of it.
She walked over to his bed, and sat. There, she reached out and took the letter opener in her hand. It was shaped in the fashion of an artillary sword, cruciform and looking like something out of a fairy tale. She'd dubbed it Arachnobane when she gave it to him, and said it would keep the creepy crawlers away from his room.
Of course, her parents had seen to the infestation that had plagued him once upon a time, when there were spiders all around in his room at home, taking residence there. Nobody knew how the spiders got there, but they learned soon enough that their six-year-old child was deathly afraid of them.
While their parents were busy casting spells to ensure the infestation would not return, Pleasance had taken him aside and took the jeweled letter opener out of her front pocket. THere, she placed it in his hands, "Be brave, Arthur. I give you Arachnobane. Spiders fear it, and won't come after you as long as it's near."
Pleasance's eyes moistened at the memory, and the thought of what had transpired made it all the more bitter for her. It drove home the cruelty of what she'd done, around and full circle. As she sat on his bed, she tried to recall to mind the creepers that had crawled onto Will's papers. She tried to imagine them everywhere, and all over her body, crawling, and scurrying all over. Pleasance imagined how helpless Arthur might've felt, with his arachnophobia, and having Arachnobane nearby, just a useless trifle that would give him no help with spiders, whether they be ordinary or conjured phantasms.
She swept the moisture from her eyes with her sleeve, as she continued to admire Arachnobane. After a moment, the young student began to wonder what she'd do with Arachnobane. Should she bring it to Arthur, and see if it'd jog his memory of a better time? Or would it be another reminder of her duplicity and treachery? A kindly-meant illusion that was so cruelly dispelled. In the moment, she returned it to the window sill, he would do with it what he would.
As for other things she might bring to comfort him, she wasn't able to scope anything out. She was about ready to leave the room, when she spotted a notebook on the floor. Curious, she tilted her head. She rose from the bed, and knelt down to pick it up. Before she could open the page, she read the words on the front: Property of Will Bartle. So Will had clumsily left his book at the scene? What a clutz! Even so, perhaps his notebook held clues as to what kind of magic he'd unleashed on Arthur... Then she might be able to figure out how to replic... how to help Arthur with a solution, a counterspell against illusionary spiders!
Yes, that was the gesture that would help seal her apology, and make certain that he'd forgive her for truth.
