Page 2 of King of Fire and Scales

Aside from working, Evanth had also built on to the cottage they lived in. When they first moved in, it had been a two-room hovel.

Evanth had also, just before the illness put him down, built Thalia's workroom which was attached to the house.

Thalia moved as quickly as possible and wrapped the new poultice several times around her father's chest.

Then she grabbed the clean clothing she had brought from upstairs and helped him into it before he could get too cold.

“Thank you, sweetheart,” Evanth said. Thalia was happy to hear that his voice sounded clearer.

She turned and smiled warmly at him.

“I just hope it helps,” she said.

Evanth didn't reply as Thalia threw away the old poultice and placed the soiled shirt and jumper in a bag in the kitchen.

She sighed. She'd have to do more washing tomorrow or her father would not have clean clothes. Then, after spooning some food into plates for both of them, she went back to the living room.

They ate in silence, sitting on the bed together. It was only after Thalia had cleared away the plates and gone back to her father's side that he spoke.

“I worry, girl, about what you're going to do when I'm gone. It won’t be long now. How will you take care of yourself? And this place?”

Thalia sat and stared blankly at the wall opposite her.

She couldn't imagine a world without her father vibrant and alive in it. She had been caring for him since her mother died when she was a child, and the thought of having that responsibility taken from her left her almost bereft.

You'll be fine. It isn't as though this is what you want with your life forever.

It was true that Thalia imagined a bigger life for herself. But for now, this life where she took care of her father would do. She wouldn't trade it for anything.

When she looked at her father to reassure him, to make him feel better, she saw he was asleep.

It was close to dusk when Thalia finally stepped out into the gardens that surrounded the cottage. A blend of herbs and flowers, the gardens were lush and beautiful.

She inhaled the bitter, tangy scents as she walked down the pathway between the expansive herb garden she had started several years earlier.

You finally get to be happy here.

The voice in her head was selfish and snarky. But she knew it was true as she kicked off her slippers. After a hard day's work in the house, being outside was the only place she could be happy.

It was also the only place she could be her true self.

She allowed tendrils of her magic, light and brilliant, to escape from her fingertips as she inspected each plant.

The magic – her magic – was hesitant at first. It was so seldom that she let it loose, but today she couldn't contain it.

Thalia had learned early on in her life that she wasn't an ordinary human. She had learned –from her mother before she died– that she was a sorceress with the ability to grow food and flowers.

In truth, Thalia should have gone to the academy that taught all young sorcerers when she came of age. But then her mother had died, and her father had been crippled by grief.

If she had insisted on going, her father would’ve gladly let her go. Being trained at the Academy had been her mother's wish, after all.

But her father had become a shadow of himself, pathetic and broken without the woman he loved.

Thalia knew in her heart that she couldn't leave him.

Now, as she used her magic to urge the plants, vegetables, and flowers to grow, she wondered what her magic would have looked like had she been properly trained.

“What would my life have been like?” Thalia murmured to herself.

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