Who is Magpie?
Chapter 13- A Surprise

Everything was set when Kay went to see Magpie. The other girl had just gotten out of the shower and her wet hair cling to the skin on her back and shoulders. She sat in her towel on the floor, delicately pruning a bonsai tree she had stollen a large land deed for,

Her greeting smile never reached her mouth, but Kay saw how her eyes grew softer when she entered. Magpie worried she would get sick of her, not someone she could laugh and smile with like her other friends but Kay had already accepted that she would be the emotional one in their partnership.

Kay moved wordlessly to sit behind her, grabbing a bamboo comb off the shelf along the way. She began to gently remove the tangled from her hair and lay it in sections over her shoulders.

“I have a surprise for you.” Kay beamed, as Magpie resumed her pruning.

“A surprise? That’s a terrible idea.” Magpie returned, and before Kay could be disappointed she continued. “I’ll only disappoint you.”

“What? Because you won’t give a high, shrill scream at the very idea like some school girl?” Kay laughed. “I’m honestly ok with that but i know you’ll like it anyway.”

Kay began the slow work of braiding her long hair, secretly enjoying every second they got to be so close. Magpie remained perfectly still during this time, giving Kay a perfect model to work with, secretly loving the feel of her swift fingers gliding through her hair until he braid laid thick and damp between her shoulder blades.

“Thank you.” Magpie returned the the tree. “You are still in your gear, please feel free to use the shower. I know you left an outfit on my clothes shelf, near the top. Maybe you’ll reconsider your lofty endeavour.”

Kay laughed again. “I know that’s just you trying to take care of me. But I won’t reconsider. You’re going to love it and I’m so excited.”

Magpie robbed her room with her pitcher watering her plants one by one. She had told Kay how she does it a few times, but Kay could only remember the schedule for her favourite plants. When she emerged from the bathroom Magpie was halfway done.

“The next time I am offered a reward I will ask for a hose for that faucet.” Magpie muttered, returning to the bathroom to fill the pitcher again.

Kay had seen her enter a few times during her shower through the glass door. Magpie has nodded to her if they made eye contact, and grumbled about one plant or another being stubborn or wilting. She rarely lost a plant, treating them with such care that Kay believed she would make a very doting mother one day.

“So your surprise, are you ready?” Kay asked, sliding her spare shirt on without a bra, not wanting to put a sweaty one back on now that she’d showered.

“If there is no alternative…”

“There isn’t. You’ll love it. We’re going to the garden!” Kay gleamed. “Surprise!”

Magpie just stared incredulously for a moment. “I mean no offence..” she began. “But did someone drop you? I can’t go out there, the flower’s spores will kill me…”

“Not with this.” Kay produced a small bottle that she knew to be for increased vitality. “This will, temporarily, block the effects of the flowers. No one will be outside the east corner tonight, and I wanted to show you the night blooming roses.”

“How many times have we had this conversation, I … night blooming roses? We have night blooming roses?” Magpie gasped, kind of, it was an expression more closely related to surprise but passed for a gasp from Magpie.

Kay nodded, knowing from previous experience that convincing her of something that directly contradicted what they told her would never work, but making something up she had never heard of might be possible. She handed the ceramic bottle to Magpie who eyed the cork stopper cautiously.

“You’re sure this will work?” She asked, just as cautiously as she looked.

Kay nodded feverishly, now completely dressed. “As sure as I’m the one that asked for it. Don’t worry no one knows it’s for you, and no one knows why I asked for it. But you deserve this. One night outside, what do you say?”

Magpie’s eyes darted between the bottle and Kay and the window looking over a small portion of the large circular garden. The nod she gave was so fast Kay wasn’t sure she saw it, but then she replied. “O-Kay.”

The deliberate spacing of the sounds sent a confusing blush over Kay’s face and she turned away to hide it. “We should get going if we want to see them bloom.”

Magpie wasn’t entirely sure what came over her. Perhaps it was the idea of a flower that went against the natural sense of plants. Or how perfectly the small bottle seemed to fit in her hand. But she was pretty sure it was the blush that Kay got when she said a stupid pun that no one but them two would understand.

They both ran through the corridors as silent as mice. The only the occasional low tongue on teeth hiss that Magpie gave to Kay when she ran ahead in the wrong direction. None of the servants halls ran outside, but at this hour they could take the entrance near the dining and cut through the kitchen to get outside.

“No time to second think.” Kay smiled. “Drink it, and let’s live a little.”

Magpie did as suggested, drinking the bottle like I shot that tasted of strawberries, returning it to Kay before stepping outside.