"Enjoy your meal," he said stiffly and returned to his bar where he suddenly became very interested in cleaning and re-stacking glasses.
His change in demeanor didn't go unnoticed by Nancey or Nicole, but neither of them said anything to each other and none of the other patrons seemed to notice.
It was already late when they arrived at the inn, so by the time they finished their meals, the other patrons had already left. As the last patron left, Nancey leaned forward and whispered to Nicole, "Watch."
Nicole's brow furrowed, Watch what? she wondered. Then she realized the emphasis Nancey had put into that one word. She tentatively opened up and the room faded a little, but she could see Jack's aura. Nancey was letting her see the sources again. Without any sort of gesture, word, or channeling, just like that, she could see again.
Jack's aura was a strong blue color. He probably didn't have any magic, and nothing else in the room even had an aura except for the flower adorning the end of the bar. It looked like some kind of water lily in a small decorative bowl that was half-filled with water. She glanced around at the other tables and saw they all had them, but the other flowers didn't have auras. Usually dying flowers have a slight aura until they've finally wilted, like the flower on the bar.
She looked more intently at the flower on the table adjacent to their own. It was a very convincing silk flower laying on top of what was probably a genuine lily pad. Nicole then realized they had sat down at the only table that didn't have one. Nancey saw her looking at the other tables, the bar, and then the center of their own table.
Nicole noticed Nancey watching her and then cocked an eyebrow. Nancey addressed Jack. "We're done here, could you show us to our room now?"
Jack picked up another tray like the one he used to deliver their order, except this one had the flower on it. He walked a little too quickly and too stiffly to their table, turning at the last moment to put the flower aside on an adjacent table and then cleared their table, placing their used dishes and utensils onto the tray he had just brought over.
Nicole noticed the flower's aura went dark and retreated within the flower. The bloom wasn't wilting, but the petals were closing. Jack came back and looked quite nervous.
He glanced first at Nancey and then at Nicole. Nancey wore her default smile. The one Nicole had seen her wear while she was waiting for some kind of response, except she hadn't asked a question.
Jack glanced back at Nicole before speaking again, to her. "Ma'am. I assume you're not from around here, but if you and your friend could please leave, I wont say anything. None of the others saw, the flowers at the tables are fakes. I wouldn't want to have any trouble with the locals, but the magistrate, he expects to see 'em when he comes by, and it's the law now."
Nicole had no idea what he was rambling about, then the thought occurred to her that perhaps the flowers reacted to sorcerers. He had just figured out what they were, but he was still being reasonable. He sounded genuinely scared. She couldn't tell if he was scared of them or perhaps for them.
Nancey cleared her throat, causing both Nicole and Jack to look at her. "Please, sir, we've been running all day. When we first heard the writ was coming, we left our homes and we've been running since." Nicole heard her words, but they didn't clearly register because she was too distracted by what Nancey's aura was doing. It was dimmer than she remembered, and then it began to change hue. It shifted from its plain gray to a blue, and then to the same blue that Jack's aura held.
"Please sir, we've never hurt anyone. Until they started selling these flowers, we didn't even know my sister was like that. Now everyone's saying that she could be responsible for all matter of foolish notions that just aren't true. Please, just put us up for the night and we'll be gone before you even wake up. We'll pay double!"
Nicole glanced from Nancey back to Jack. Jack was entirely focused on what Nancey was saying, his nervous tension melted away, he sighed, and then gave a short nod. "You poor girl," he turned and addressed Nicole again. "You're just like our Bonnie was. You stay the night, but leave as early as you can. If anyone comes through here looking for you, I'll just tell them you changed your minds and left tonight."
As he led them away from the table, Nicole noticed that the lily had opened back up to full bloom.
Well, I messed up with the image. I actually meant to post either an image of the tavern door, or the shingles upon entering the town, or something else for the previous post. The image for this post was supposed to be one of the lilies. But then I set about trying to make an image that would look like a wrought iron sign, and when it reached the point that I had spent longer fighting with making the image than I had in writing some of my more normal articles, I decided that I would leave the "wrong" image up for the previous story post and just make a new one for this post. So, in case it wasn't obvious, yesterday's image is one of the sorcerer detecting plants, and today's, regardless of how oddly suggestive it may have turned out, is supposed to be the same plant reacting to the presence of a nearby sorcerer.
I think if I can ever manage enough readers, I'll start commissioning real artists, but until then, enjoy my crappy artwork. You can at least have fun guessing what it was supposed to represent, right?
Also, apologies on the slow update, life has kept me busy lately. I imagine I'll continue to post sparsely until sometime after the new year, then I should be back on more regularly.