My lovely wife laughed, “I told you she’d find a way to punish you.”
I nodded in agreement, “At least the worst is over. Now we can relax and enjoy some wine. My nerves could certainly use another cup.”
Penny reached for the bottle, and began to fill my goblet, but as I reached for it a wave of mild dizziness washed over me. Placing my hand against the side of the table in an attempt to steady myself, I put my other hand against the side of my head, “Whoa…”
My wife’s brows furrowed, “Are you alright? Do you sense something?”
I waved my hands at her, “No, I’m fine. Just felt dizzy for a moment. That wine may be more potent that I realized.” I took a sip from the goblet in my hand. It didn’t taste particularly strong, but then the best wines generally didn’t.
“You never have been able to hold your drink,” Dorian teased from where he sat beside Rose.
Opening my eyes wide, I responded gleefully, “Oh really? You are going to lecture me on drinking? Perhaps the ladies here would like to hear about your first time with a full tankard of ale in your belly.”
Dorian’s face pinked in a subtle blush. He knew I had him at a disadvantage. “Well now let’s not get ahead of ourselves my friend. There’s no need to go delving into ancient history now.”
Rose had lifted one eyebrow in interest even as Penny chimed in first, “I for one would love to hear this story.” Lady Rose nodded her head in agreement.
“I think we were… what was it Dorian, fourteen perhaps?” I said to my friend, while he tried to look busy refilling his own cup.
“Fifteen,” he corrected.
“So we were,” I agreed happily. “We snuck into the ducal wine cellar. Marc had stolen the keys from the cellar-master, and while we were down there we found a freshly tapped keg of spring ale. For some reason it hadn’t been finished, and they decided to lock it up rather than leave it out.”
“Probably to keep the teenagers from getting into it…” grumbled Dorian.
“In any case,” I continued, “Marc and I concluded that it would ruin if it was left too long, so we convinced Dorian to have some with us. None of us were particularly keen on wine back then, so we were rather glad to be able to drink ale instead.”
“No need to make it sound as if we were regular drinkers.”
I laughed, “Indeed, we were not. While Marc and I had stolen a bit of wine a few times before, our friend, Dorian the Pure, had never tasted a drop of alcohol before that day.”
“What happened?” said Rose, leaning in closely. The story had her complete attention. Dorian groaned.
“We found three large tankards and filled them to the brim,” I explained. “To be honest, they really were large. Each one would hold a full yard of ale, but after we had each drunk ours down, Dorian here was overwhelmed by emotion.” I grinned at my childhood friend.
Rose let out a small laugh, while Penny asked me, “What sort of emotion?”
Looking at the ceiling I sighed dramatically, “The noblest of emotions, love… that is what spoke to Dorian’s sloppy drunken heart that day!”
“You don’t have to be so damned poetic about it,” complained Dorian.
“Marc and I tried to cover the fact that we’d had a bit to drink, but it was no use with Dorian beside us. After we left the cellar, we tried to sneak into the kitchen to steal some of the left over bread. When the cook caught us, he could barely scold us for all of Dorian’s professions of love and affection. From there he forced us to stop every time we met someone so that he could tell them how much he loved them,” I laughed as I recounted the tale, and the lights in the room seemed to dim.
“It wasn’t as bad as all that,” said Dorian sourly.
For some reason it had gotten really quiet, so much so that it made Dorian’s voice seem louder than normal, but when I listened I still heard the same background noise as usual. In fact the room was quite loud with people’s voices. Strange. Shaking my head I responded to my friend’s remark, “Oh, it was bad! You told Benchley that you loved him as well.” Benchley was the valet and chamberlain for James Lancaster, and a figure of stern authority throughout our boyhoods.
“I forgot about that part,” Dorian admitted.
“Hah!” I said in a voice that sounded too loud to my own ears. “You threw up on…,” I paused as the room grew dim. The light was fading rapidly, but no one else seemed to have noticed. An oppressive silence grew around me at the same time.
A feeling of panic gripped my heart, and I stood up suddenly. My friends watched cautiously, unsure if my strange expression was meant to be part of my tale, or something to be concerned about. I felt Penny’s hand on mine as she studied my face. “Is something wrong, Mordecai?”
I was smothered in a darkness so profound, even my magesight could not pierce it, while at the same time my ears seemed to have stopped working. Looking at my wife’s face I spoke, “I’ve gone blind.”
She stared at me curiously. “Don’t be silly, you’re looking directly into my eyes.”
That made no sense, yet she was correct. I could still see her, and everyone else for that matter. The sensation was similar to the first time I had experienced seeing with my magesight alone, an occasion in which I had been in a pitch black room without realizing that there was no light. “Wait, that isn’t right,” I said agreeing with her, as comprehension of my situation dawned upon me. “I can still see… it’s my magesight that’s gone.”
“Now who’s drunk on one cup of wine, eh?” commented Dorian.
I ignored him and stared wildly around me. My sensation, my ‘feeling’ for everything around me was completely absent. Though my eyes still worked, everything looked flat and two dimensional, as if the world had lost all depth and much of its color as well. I couldn’t hear anything either.
It wasn’t ordinary mundane sounds of people talking around me, or the sound of plates and cups as people ate. No… the sounds I was missing were the voices that had been my constant companions for many years now. It had been something so pervasive, so omnipresent I hardly noticed it anymore; the tiny songs and melodies of people’s bodies, of furniture, or the gentle susurrating music of the wind… the deep drum beat of the earth’s heart below. It was all gone, as though the universe itself had gone still, holding its breath in anticipation of some important event.
“He’s not joking, Dorian,” said Rose to her husband, “Something is wrong with Mordecai.”
“What’s wrong with Daddy?” asked Moira, tugging on Penny’s dress.
“Nothing darling, I think he just had too much wine,” said Penny immediately.
I had broken out in a cold sweat, and a faint feeling of nausea swept over me. “I think perhaps I should retire for the evening,” I told them uncertainly.
Penny didn’t waste any time. Reaching out she caught the nearest server by the arm as he was passing by with a tray of meat, “Tell Peter that the Count isn’t feeling well and has decided to retire for the evening.”
The poor fellow was startled and almost attempted to bow with the platter in his hands. “Yes, mi’lady.” Turning he started to continue down the table with his tray.
The countess’ voice caught him before he had gone two steps, “Set the tray down, it can wait. Inform Master Tucker immediately.”
I was already on my feet, so I began heading toward the exit without waiting. Dorian caught up with me in time to prevent me from walking into the door frame; I had looked back to see if Penny had the children in tow. I wasn’t used to navigating without my magesight. Before I could pass through the doorway, a collective gasp echoed through the hall, and looking back I knew immediately why… one of the large enchanted lights in the center of the great hall had turned a vivid blue color.