Words for Wednesday -- Á Íslandi - 14

And still I have not used all the prompts, we were given for Wednesday 16, so I continue.
The prompts were:
Sweetheart    
Succotash    
Semi-stable    
Solace    
Singularly    
Solution   
     and/or
Married
Lately
Diet
Denied
Squash
Urban

  I used the crossed out words in Á Íslandi 12 and 13, but I think I soon have to change the name of this series, as they are not in Iceland any more.  If you're feeling sharp, you might have noticed the numbers changing, Blame Blogger. Something happened giving a whole another story Susan's labels. Now it should be right ... I hope.
  For this instalment I used Denied. There's more words, and more story yet to come.


Susan did not have to hang all the curtains alone, Hans and Nana, Hilde's two oldest children and their spouses, Randi and Claus were there trying to find out what to do, Soon Susan's only job was to boss around four eager helpers from her vantage point at the middle table. They were almost done when Rasmus came to the door. Nana gently teased him: "Oh my tiny brother, coming of age-time has caught up with you as well?" This was doubly funny as Nana was almost a handspan shorter than Rasmus, and Hans was even taller.
"Yes, my dear sister," Rasmus answered in kind, "I an about to enter the realms denied me by you two scoundrels."
"What did you find, Rasmus?" Susan asked. leaving the room and the four helpers to hang the last curtains without her eager eyes resting on them.
"That's the wonder of it," Rasmus answered. "It's a tree I never thought I would have a reason to love. Cherries, I'm allergic to the fruits,  and even though the wood is very beautiful when used for wood turning, I have yet to make a bowl that's not cracked or in some way crooked from that wood."
"You'll have to talk to Frank later. He's the son of Sarah, one of the old apprentices, and he's a wizard with a lathe as well as a real one. But later. Now is the time and place to give you a wand!"
Susan bade Rasmus place his hands on the tree, and placed her own hand on it as well. She could feel the tree, eager, humming, like a well tuned harp. She did not sing for very long before she felt the small loss of power, that meant a wand had been made.
"Catch it!"  she said to Rasmus, still almost singing, and he did. "Now swish the wand through the air like this." Susan showed him the simple move, that made sparks fly. He swished the wand, nothing happened. He tried a couple of times more, but still nothing. Susan put her fingers over his on the wand to check on the placement of his fingers, and could feel the pent up energy in them."
"Relax," Susan said. "Think of how nice it would to become a wizard. Nana won't be able to tease you any more. And praise the Lord you are not swinging that kitchen cabinet door of a wand you tried to make me sing for you!" Rasmus laughed and swished the wand. Bright red and golden sparks flew from the wand and ended up in Susan's hair and down her dress. Hurriedly she pointed her wand at herself: "Slökkvið!" she exclaimed, and the sparks died without hurting her. "Fine, job, Rasmus. Now it's back to school for you. You are going to study Icelandic, wand movements, history of magic, transformation, cryptozoology and all that together with my grandkids and your own children."
"My children," Rasmus said. "They are witches both of them, aren't they?"  
"You felt their magic, and so did Finnbogi. I'm sure it will awaken, or we'll find out how to awaken it. Study they will."

Over lunch in the dining hall, now with curtains, Marit spoke to Rasmus and Finnbogi about Sandra.  "We need your help. To sum it up: Medically spoken, there's plain nothing wrong with her. She's old, but she should be up and running. I saw her medical pages on the web. All her vitals are as good as can be expected from an elderly lady. Yet she's fading day by day, getting more and more translucent. Finnbogi and Rasmus, you come with me, and look at her, we need to find out if it's a curse, a poison or whatever."
"Do you need me or anybody else to come with you?" Susan asked.
"No Marit said, and Fiona just shook her head." Before we know what needs to be done, or can be done, we will try to tax Sandra's strength as little as possible. We're giving her some strengthening potions and spoonful upon spoonful of Hilde's old fashioned bone broth. We're keeping her alive, but not much more. She's in no pain, only tired and weak."
"Thanks for being honest," Susan said. "I would like you, Fiona, to call your husband and ask him to come down, preferably bringing as many of your magical kids and grandkids as possible. It's winter holidays, and I think we should maybe begin formal education in Birch Manor a bit early."
"Nice thought," Knud said. "but are we ready for it?"
"No," Rósa said. "The books are in a terrible condition."
"Yes," Hilde said. "It's time to give most of the grandkids their wands, and teach them - and our children as well the basics of Icelandic and spellcasting. This will be fine with no books."
Finnbogi said: "I agree with Susan and Hilde. We actually have already begun with gathering and Mál sameinast every morning. I should be the one casting it by the way," he said, a bit too selfconsciously, and Rósa snickered.
"Well," Hilde said, "he is the oldest."
"No he's not!" Knud said. "I am!"
"Yes, that's right, Knud, you are re older," Rósa said. "It can't be by much, but you are older. And when we find Helge, he'll be the oldest."
"Helge might be," Finnbogi said, "but Susan said that I was the oldest."
"I was wrong, obviously," Susan said. "I thought you were almost as old as Sif and Elvin."
"No, they were both older than me, quite a bit actually," Finnbogi said in a sad voice. "They were always allowed to do all the fun things."
"When is your birthday, Finnbogi?" Hilde asked.
"January 31st,"  he said. "but yes, now I remember, Knud. You and David. You were just in front of me at the Easter fires, born on the same day, you two were. But which day."
"January 29th," Knud said, "so two days only. Helge was born in September, I think, the year before us."
Finnbogi bowed to Knud.
"Well then it's decided," Knud said. "School at Birch Manor begins today with the singing of wands and the attribution of colours."

Marit and Fiona left with Finnbogi and Rasmus
Rósa said: "Well and good. I'll help with the attribution of colours, but I won't teach any before all the books are sorted and in usable condition once again."
"I think that's fair," Susan said, "and furthermore, we have many blue ones here. You, me, Knud and Hilde. Bringing order to the chaos of books is actually a worthy job. Finnbogi can help you in his spare time, I suppose you learnt a lot about conservation in the museum."
"We did," Rósa said, "but I specialized in books and Finnbogi in textiles and wood, he can help, but so can anyone with a steady hand when I need it."
"Great," Knud said. "We have only him as a representative of the red ones until we find Aamu, and if we are anything near a normal sample, only few are red wizards anyway."

"We're talking," Susan said. "Let's plan instead. How do we find out which colour to attribute to the apprentices? Golly I do not feel ready to become a teacher. I keep on looking for Martine, Thora or some of the old ones to tell me what to do. But Rósa, I need you for wandsinging, I can't handle it alone."
"What about My?" Rosa asked, "was she not supposed to come and help?"
"Yes, but the time we gave her was later she can't come yet," Susan said, "and Sandra is ill or cursed or whatever. Heidi and the twins are too preoccupied to do any teaching just now. I pull back my suggestion of a formal opening, I think we should just begin teaching the kids - all of them, ours and their children alike - some basic magic, some Icelandic, and some proper care of magical creatures. We might only have some disappearing dormice to begin with, but that's a fine start."
"You forget broomriding," Martine said. "Just because you're one of the worst riders ever it does not mean your children and all the others should not be taught."
"Oh," Susan said shamefacedly. "I forgot. You can teach them all you like. But we also need My for the quickening of broomsticks. Or  ... maybe we could persuade Monica to come down, And Jan and Olav would be welcome as well. They could use some practise too, I suppose."