Who is Magpie?

The view she was met with nearly stopped her heart. She knew the idea of the garden, winding stone paths with different groupings of flowers and plants, but as the moonlight shone over the path before her… it was different. To one side was a lazy found with a current slow enough that birds still enjoyed it as a bath. There were four there now, cleaning themselves before a safe evening in one of the bird homes or nests in the trees around the garden.

Magpie could see wet, little twiggy footprints of other birds in the stone around the bath from ones she had likely just missed. The bright poppies seemed to wave toward her but looked too delicate to touch beside a full circular flower with dozens of petals that Magpie couldn’t name.

Though, there were many others she could name. Walking down the path with Kay now trailing behind, keeping an eye out incase anyone else came around, but enjoying the speed at which Magpie spoke. Ten minutes down the path the sun was setting and Magpie stopped. The night blooming roses were just ahead and she dashed over to them, skipping other sites along the way. Kay was quick to follow, coming up just behind her to see her saucers or eyes gazing in utter aww as the flowers opened up to reveal their purple velvet petals.

She watched them all open in complete silence, Kay standing beside her with an arm around her hip. She had seen it probably a hundred times, and her attention was entirely focused on Magpie. Her lips remained together but her jaw has dropped, she didn’t grin but she was happy, and not a single tear fell but she was euphoric.

Magpie turned back to Kay, leaning in quickly and kissing her cheek. “Thank you. This… no words can describe what this means to me.”

Kay brought her in tightly for a hug she couldn’t resist. Her arms squeezed around her and she settled in for a long hold, but was surprised again when Magpie’s arms joined in the hug. “I would do it again for a hug like this.”

Magpie coughed, just once, and Kay believed it was her trying to stifle a laugh.

They walked further into the garden, nearing the wall of tall hedges that hid the actual wall on the other side. “There it is, the end.” Kay laughed, looking around the curve of the wall at everything else that would have to wait for another night.

Magpie moved like she meant to say something sarcastic but coughed again. This time her face looked pained. She knelt on the ground as fits of coughing overtook her body and left her unable to stand.

“Magpie?” Kay asked worriedly, dropping to her side and trying to hold her up. “What’s wrong?”

“I guess… *cough cough* temporary *couch.. cough* isn’t as lo.. *COUGH* long as we thought.” Magpie managed to get out before anther fit overcame her, making her eyes water and spit fall from her mouth into the dirt.

“Let’s get you back.” Kay panicked, wrapping Magpie’s arm over her shoulder and standing to help her walk.

Another fit overtook her and Kay noticed a red tint to the dampness in the inner-elbow of her shirt. Panicked took over as she tried to speed them along, but Magpie couldn’t get her feet to move any faster.

“Kay! Magpie!” The heard a hushed voice call out and Kay halted in panicked.

Magpie was already out of focus mentally enough that she didn’t remember why she should feel panicked about someone looking for them where they shouldn’t be. She tried to quite the coughing but another fit sent stars into her eyes. When the star faded Bluejay was standing in front of them, helping Kay carry her along.

“What?” Magpie asked, not realizing that they were already in an existing question that started before her last fit.

“What are you doing out here?”

“I’m showing Magpie the garden, I didn’t…”

“That matters less right now than what she touched, what she smelt, what she saw.”

“We followed this one winding road to the end, that’s all we were going to do, down and back. We were already about to head inside when the coughing started.” Kay looked worried.

Truthfully Kay was worried, wondering what she had gotten wrong. She thought back to the bottle and wondered if maybe the person she had got it from had tampered with it, or there was an ingredient inside that human’s couldn’t ingest. She told Bluejay everything, from each flower the stopped to see to the bottle she had given Magpie.

Magpie listened on, not surprised by anything Kay said until she said spoke of a dupe potion because the rule was fake. Kay had said this before, and she didn’t believe her. They had nearly argued about it but Kay finally dropped it, looking sadly but not because she lost the argument. Magpie wondered what else she had said that was true, but this ringing in her head had told her it couldn’t be.

They carted her off to a private medical room, Kay noting that Sparrow and Nightingale weren’t in their watch posts on the way inside. Swan was already there waiting for them when Magpie was sat down, the coughing continuing. A mask was quickly placed over her face and she was instructed to breathe slowly and deliberately as they laid her on her side.

Kay sat on her heals beside her, hardly realizing she had been crying until Magpie brushed the tears with the back of her fingers. “This was still the best night of my life.” Magpie whispered, her eyes getting droopy.

“What did you do to her!” Kay demanded, patting Magpie’s cheek.

“Calming her.” Bluejay muttered.

“She wasn’t panicked!” Kay pointed out, another tear rolling down her cheek as Magpie’s eyes drifted shut and didn’t open again.

“There is so much you know nothing about.” Swan muttered