Warm Flame - Chapter Three
When she, fifteen years old, began to ask to start working in the house, the Councilor noticed the girl's sharp ears and didn’t want to let her work as a cleaner. "The elves won’t work in the aristocrat's house," she said. But Siala still managed to catch the Calm James on the street and ask for a place. The governor unhesitatingly let the girl to work in the house and allocated a fee not a penny less than he gave humans.
Almost finished cleaning, the girl sighed and crouched on the sofa. Her look dropped to the carved fireplace. Fresh logs laid and waited when they were warmed by fire. It seemed to the girl wrong that they were so lonely. She focused on the fuel, imagining the fire, how it would flash, how it would cover every sheet of paper, every branch, every log, how it would light up the whole room with orange light, how it would dance and sparkle, how it would absorb woody food. It took almost 2 minutes for the girl to flare up a small flame. Without the help of magic. Not such, fire was imagined by the girl, but well at least, it turned out well. If at least someone had taught her magic, she would have learned to be healer and treated her mother without medication. But in Pikgard there were no mages. All those who discovered magic in themselves left to study and didn’t return to this place forgotten by the Creator. "Such a gift should not be thrown to the wind," they said...
After finishing with cleaning, the girl left in the proper place all the equipment and went to look for the owner of the house. James Calm was sitting in his office, his head bent over a leaf with an Imperial seal. Siala knocked at the slightly opened door.
"Come in, girl."
"Sir, I have a request. Could you pay me the money in advance? Now I don’t have money for medicines, and if the supplies of drugs stop, my mother will be left without treatment. I promise to work every last penny and even more."
The governor raised his head and looked into Siala's bright eyes. There were drops of tears in them, which the elf girl didn’t let go. Mother is her only family, James understood this.
"I'll give you money, my girl, but I don’t know how long there will be no supplies. We already have enough money. The war began not only today, it began a while ago and we were in ignorance. My family is leaving tomorrow. In fact, when they leave, there will be no more work. I will pay you and all the other servants everything I can and let them go home.
The lump in Siala's throat has grown. She will be left without work and without money, because she is going to spend it on the medicines. How to live? What to do? Today, Mrs. Lilith will give them a little dinner, and then what? She lives in a little house which has been falling apart for a long time, the roof is leaking, the stove is not heated so it is damp. No food to cook, no warmth. Mother's sick body cannot withstand it.
In her thoughts Siala didn’t notice how the Manager handed her a bag of money.
"Siala, wake up girl. No time to lose heart, you'll still find work. Maybe the war will end and you will return to work here.
Everything will be alright."
"I hope..."
The girl took the bag and quietly said goodbye to the owner of house. All the way to the kitchen, she was thinking "What to do next? I have no work. After all, I cannot stand doing nothing, hope won’t feed my family."