Chapter 9: A Sliver of Fear
Akaitora awoke, feeling refreshed. He had slept better in the past, seing as this time he had not slept in his usual bed. Having no guests was coupled with having no guest bed. he had simply taken a cushion and sheet, and slept in his workshop, while Fluttershy had been given his bed. He hoped that she had found it comfortable.
It was still about an hour til daylight, according to a contaption he had built that monitored the movements of the sun and moon. He decided to get something to eat and drink before leaving for the day. His spells weren't effective while he slept, so he was usually hungry when he woke up. He was almost always getting by on a few hours a week anyway, since he used a miniscule amount of energy when awake.
He trotted down the stairs, and noticed that the door to the room he had left Fluttershy in was open. He thought nothing of it, he sometimes left doors open when he wasn't paying attention. 'I'll close it on the way back up' he thought to himself.
He decided that a quick pastry was in order today, so he cut a bit of wheat, and plucked an apple from a tree, and walked across the hall to the kitchen and lit up an oven with a magical fire, and placed the apple down on a corner of the nearest table. he pulled the seeds from the stalk, and placed them in the millstone, which was hoof-operated, crushing the seeds, creating a fine powder after a few rounds.
He picked up a pitcher with his magic and walked back into the greenhouse, and collected some water from the waterfall, making sure to cap the pitcher, to keep it from spilling. He poured it into a wooden mixing bowl, along with the fresh flour he had milled moments ago. it didn't take long to create a nice, thick dough, kneading it with magic. He divided it into two long, flat strips, and lay them down on a metal slab he had pulled from a crate he kept under the table, after puffing a bit of the remaining flour on the pan to keep it from sticking.
He then turned his attention to the apple, ripping the skin off, not damaging the white, after years of practice. then the stem was removed, followed by the seeds, leaving only the white of the apple sitting in his steel-blue aura. He then crushed it, making a sort of mush that he spread across one slab of flour, then placed the other across the top, sealing the applesauce inside.
Grabbing a knife from the block by the wall, he began to cut the long strip of pastry into squares, the knife both cutting and resealing the breaded squares, keeping the center from oozing out during baking. he then cut tiny slits in the tops, to keep the pressure down.
Thankfully, these were quick to bake, allowing him time to enter the pantry down the hall and return with two bottles of apple juice. He pulled the pastries out, checking to make sure they were done, and placed them on the table, dividing them into two groups, and placed them onto plates. Setting one plate and bottle aside, he ate in solitude, and emptied the bottle of apple juice, following the pastries to end up in the same prison. He washed the plate and bottle, and left them to dry, now feeling very comfortable.
He levitated the other plate and bottle over to him, and carried them up the stairs. At the top of the first flight, he stopped climbing, and started down the hallway to his designated bedroom, putting down the bottle and plate on the table just inside the room. He poked in his head to see...
An empty bed. He stood for a few seconds, looking around the room. Where had his subject gone? Why was she not in the room? Had she at least left a notice? He looked around once more, searching the entire room, revealing nothing had been disturbed, save for the fact that his bed had been made.
He searched the entire floor, room by room. Was she in the storage room? No. The small library? Empty. The the room he used to grow fungi for his alchemy? Void of all fauna. Having searched all the rooms, he began to fear the worst. What if his spell had worn off? It would be easy to tell if that happened, the gem would have stopped glowing. But Fluttershy couldn't know that... Could she?
He thought about what might happen if she escaped and told everypony about how he had forcibly removed her from her home as he ran up another flight of stairs to search the next floor, the one with his workshop. 'What if they're on their way over right now? I'll have to get my notes together quickly. But what if they use one of my tracking spells against me? I'll have no time to sever them all! Why do I put myself in situations like this?'
Up one more flight of stairs, having found nothing, he raced into the gardens just inside the barrier he had set up last night. he raced around the outside, finding a set of hoofprints leading outside of the barrier headed in the direction of town. 'curse my rotten luck!' he yelled at himself inside his head 'I was so close, too... Well, time to get my emergency pack and flee for my life one more time...'
He kept a set of saddlebags in one of the rooms of the upper floor, under a stone panel that was hidden behind a throne. racing up the stairs, he repeatedly cursed himself under his breath for not putting a tracking spell on the collar itself, so he could find it at will. But by now, somepony would have removed it magically. Even with a tracking spell, it would have been worthless to try to track it. As he removed the stone from behind the throne, he heard voices in the distance. 'Well, goodbye, Ponysburg, or whatever your name was. I'm leaving. Don't expect me back.'
He turned, and looked out the window, saddlebags all loaded up and ready to go, but what he saw made him stop. There, right across from the room he was in, was Fluttershy. She still wore the collar, and it still glowed with the spells he had put on it earlier. She was talking to another pony. He was a unicorn, a sort of pale, copper color, with bright yellow eyes. his cutie mark was... a lockpick? No, it couldn't be... After all these years, how had he shown up here, of all places? Fluttershy was having a conversation with Akaitora's brother.