by Sean Oswald
Opening the gate to the picket fence, Dave saw the ground was masterfully gardened with well laid flower beds in perfect bloom and a quaint red brick path leading up to the front door. The grass which had sprung up was thick and a deep green while being perfectly manicured.
The smell of smoke woke Dave with a start. He sat up quickly but immediately regretted it. He felt aches in every inch of his body, but most of all he felt the spot where he had broken his leg. It wasn’t the sharp pain from earlier but more like a dull reminder of a past injury. A quick glance around showed him that he wasn’t in danger of being burnt. Rather, he was laying on a blanket next to a fire. A fire in the same fire pit where Sara must have camped a short time ago. Sitting around the fire were Karl and Leyna. The latter said, “It’s about time that you woke up. I was getting ready to leave your heavy backside here.”
Karl just shook his head and grinned before offering Dave a piece of roasted meat on a wooden skewer. Immediately, Dave was too hungry to care about what type of animal the meat had come from or even how long he had been out. His flashback was still fresh in his mind. He knew that he needed to work harder than ever to restore his family.
Chapter Eight
“There will be no end to the troubles of states, or of humanity itself, till philosophers become kings in this world, or till those we now call kings and rulers really and truly become philosophers, and political power and philosophy thus come into the same hands.” — Plato
The morning light came in through a butterfly shaped window formed in the room Emily had been given as a sleeping chamber. The moon elf family which had taken her and Mira in had been elderly but kind. The couple had shared a glance between themselves upon seeing Mira but not a word had passed their lips. In the few days of travel with the elven party, it had become painfully clear that there was a strong bias against moon elves having children with humans. Emily could kick herself for the choice she made to be a moon elf. And to think that she had been worried about what choice Dave would make. It was frustrating that it had to be like that. She loved the gracefulness she felt in her new body and the exotic beauty she possessed now made her feel a confidence about her appearance that she had never known on Earth. More than anything though, she hated that prejudice was going to affect her children.
Eloria wasn’t so entirely different. Even here, people had difficulty with those who were not like them. She caught the runaway thought before it went too far. Talvenicus and the people of Eris’ Rise had been good to her family. They had taken them in and not seemed to care about her status as an elf or the mixed heritage of the kids. So there were good people in Eloria just like there were people with a variety of biases.
As those musing passed through her mind, she extended her arms and legs in a vigorous stretch. It was delightful how young and fit she felt, not the slightest creak upon waking up. The bed she had been given to sleep in was a marvel. It was shaped like an oval palm frond and seemed almost fragile, yet it fully supported her weight mid-air, and when she stood up, it retracted back into the wall of the room which was really the inside of a tree. All that remained of her bed was a green bud protruding from the wall. The only downside to this bed was that it hadn’t prevented her nightly terrors in which she dreamed horrible things happening to Sara or Jackson. Her only nights of sleep without nightmares had been when sleeping in the tabernacle.
Emily then walked down the short hallway to the adjacent chamber which had been assigned to Mira. The entire home carved, or rather magically shaped, inside of an ironwood tree was precise and utilitarian while maintaining beauty. There was no wasted space. If there was one characteristic which seemed common to the moon elves, it was a sort of honor driven practicality. As she entered the door less chamber, she found her first born still asleep on her magical frond. That image of her not so tiny baby girl curled up and sleeping peacefully was priceless to Emily. The past few years, things had been very tense between the two of them. Somewhere around twelve years of age, Mira had apparently decided that whatever Emily said or thought must be wrong. But that didn’t take away from her delight in her child. Mira was beautiful and brilliant and so kind. The ways she had developed in their short time in Eloria made her mother even more proud.
As if sensing that she was being watched, Mira woke up. A small smile crept over her face.
“Morning mom.”
“Morning sunshine, how did you sleep?”
“I don’t know how they make these beds, but we definitely have to learn how to incorporate them into whatever house we build back home. It was like sleeping on a cloud.”
Emily smiled that Mira had adjusted to this new life so well that she was calling Eris’ Rise home.
“Not that I’d mind staying in that tabernacle thing either from time to time.” Mira added with just a hint of teenage spunk.
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Emily thought back to the moment they had walked into the tabernacle for the first time. It had seemed so out of place. For all intents and purposes, it was a middle class American ranch style home. There was a living room, kitchen, dining room, four bedrooms, and even modern style bathrooms. The sink and stove worked like back home, although she didn’t want to ask where the water or gas were coming from. There were lamps and ceiling fans and even a fifty inch screen television mounted on a wall in front of a large leather sectional.
Emily smiled to herself as she remembered the kids' reactions to seeing the tv. They might have been adapting to an Eloria which was stuck in the middle ages with magic, but the sight of that tv had them both scrambling as fast as they could move trying to find the remote control. The look on Jaselm’s face as they did so had been hilarious. Once Jackson had found the remote, it looked exactly like the one they had had back on earth. They briefly argued about what they were going to watch on tv before Mira had pointed out that it probably wouldn’t work anyway. After all, how was a tv on Eloria supposed to receive a signal from Earth? They had no idea if they were even in the same galaxy or, for that matter, dimension as Earth. Yet, sure enough, as soon as Jackson pressed the small red power button, the tv came to life and started beaming out a Rachel Ray cooking show, one of Emily’s favorites.
The experience had been surreal for the entire family, enough to make them each individually question once again if this was all real or just a dream. For his part, Jaselm, thought it was some divine miracle and all but bowed before the television until Dave explained to him what it was. Mira managed to wrestle the remote away from her brother and started changing the channels. It turned out that there were only three channels: Food Network, HGTV, and the Hallmark movie channel. All three of Emily’s favorites, but enough to make the kids groan.
Thinking back on it, that night had been a sort of oasis in their suffering. It wasn’t that she didn’t think about Sara that night. Rather, the familiarity of the surroundings brought a level of peace. Although maybe part of it was the active effect of the artifact. Emily felt more confident than ever that Sara was going to be okay and that they would eventually see her again. They all needed the good night of sleep that they got. The master bedroom had a bed that was every bit as comfortable as their Tempur-Pedic bed back home. Jaselm marveled at the bed in the room he was offered and took every opportunity to stay there as a quest until he eventually departed with Emily for Chenhou Forest and the Moon Elf King.
Heck, Emily was in such a good mood about the familiar surroundings and the fridge full of comfort foods like ice cream, not to mention the coffee that awaited them in the morning, that she had been in the mood to close the gap between her and Dave. The man was an idiot again though, not picking up on any of her subtly dropped hints and instead had insisted that he needed to go out and check on everyone around town to make sure that it would be safe for them to sleep in the tabernacle. By the time the Sheriff of Eris’ Rise had made it back to bed, his elven priestess was fast asleep with a smudge of chocolate ice cream on the corner of her mouth, and the opportunity had pa
ssed.
The meetings over the next few days had grown increasingly tense. Especially after Max and Dave left for the Albian capital. The elves were insisting that Emily had to come and be presented before the Throne and that the Circle would have questions for her. They couldn’t seem to care less about Dave and were openly hostile to her children. The church wanted Emily to leave for the Albian capital and meet with the bishop but was far less demanding in the requests made by Jaselm. Max insisted that this all had to be reported to King Borstein while the Duke kept trying to stall that. Throughout it all, the people of Eris’ Rise continually tried to wish her well wherever she went all the while making it clear that they would feel lost without her.
In the end, Max went with Olga who had some sort of magical scroll that could move six people to the capital hundreds of miles away in the blink of an eye. He took Dave, Duke Holstein, one of the church lieutenants, and for the sixth, Jackson. Emily and Dave had argued bitterly about whether Jackson should be allowed to go. In the end, Dave put his foot down, and Emily conceded. The argument was that if they each only had to look out for one of the remaining children it would be easier, and Jackson was begging to go with his dad. If only she had known how that would turn out, she would have fought against it harder.
While they were gone, the elves, especially Lord Itsu continued to pressure Emily. She resisted his badgering whether it came with sweet promises or dire threats. Throughout all of it, the other elf, Eisuke, had remained quiet. The little conversation that Emily had with the man told her that he was no nonsense, all actions instead of words kind of guy. Since he was an elf, she didn’t know how old he actually was, but he had that middle-aged dashing gentleman look mastered. Eventually, it was something that she said in describing to Lord Itsu and Jaselm the trials they had experienced that prompted the Eisuke to speak up. When she talked about the tree sappers, the forest warden came to life walking back and forth frantically and demanding every detail that she could give him. His urgency rubbed off onto all of the other elves but to a lesser extent, and even Jaselm seemed to agree that the presence of tree sappers changed everything.
Now Eisuke joined in with Itsu insisting that she come to the Moon Elf capital. He insisted that the Circle needed to know everything that she knew about this new swarm of sappers and that they had magic which could take the memories and share them with more experienced eyes that might find important details she had missed. He vowed upon the honor of his house and the Circle of Druids that if she came with him to present herself before the Throne and would speak to the Circle that he would guarantee her safe return to Eris’ Rise if that was what she still desired afterwards.
There was something about Eisuke that Emily found compelling. In many ways he reminded her of Dave. He was a man of absolute principal and duty. His impassioned pleas along with Itsu’s not so subtle threats of what would happen to the humans of Eris’ Rise if she did not comply eventually led to her agreeing to go with them to meet the rulers of the Moon Elves. She insisted that Mira would have to come with her and that she could not leave until Dave returned. The situation got a bit more complicated when Jaselm insisted that he could not leave Emily’s side. It was eventually agreed that Jaselm and a small contingent of his men would be allowed to go along as an honor guard for her position as a Daughter of Redemption.
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That brought her to the present, where her hostess for the night found her and Mira talking and let them know that there was a meal to break their fast if they would follow her. Walking after the lady of the house, Emily took more time to examine her. She still walked with that characteristic elven grace, but she was clearly older. Her full black head of hair had a sprinkling of silver hairs. So apparently even elves got older.
A few steps took them to a spiral staircase that led down to a lower floor of the home where a spread of dishes was laid out upon the floor, and the man of the home was sitting cross legged on the ground. She and Mira were directed to sit opposite one another around a circular wooden table which only rose six inches off the floor. There were carvings depicting scenes like hunts and childbirth and an assortment of other life events on the table which she could only partially make out because of the various dishes covering the surface.
Their hostess spoke once all four of them were seated, “Lord Itsu informed us that while you are a moon elf you are also a Mitsukatta and may not know our ways.” As she finished speaking, she had lowered her head and avoided eye contact as if she were afraid that her words would embarrass Emily.
Emily was moved by the concern of this kind woman, whose name she didn’t even know. The concern to not offend Emily made her feel an immediate connection with the hostess. It had been so uncommon for the elves to treat her with this much respect. “I apologize, but he was correct. I am a moon elf by blood, but I have only grown up with humans. Where I am from, there are no elves of any kind.” Emily kept her explanation vague while still being honest, meeting the requirements of her class without giving away too much.
The older male elf now had an expression of grief pass across his face. “It is a great loss to not know one’s people, to not be connected in the grand circle.”
Emily waited to see if he would say anything beyond expressing pity for her. In fact, she waited so long that there was nothing appropriate to do other than nod along.
After that, it was easier to focus on breakfast rather than speaking anymore. She hadn’t known what to expect the dining fare of elves to be, but in her mind, elves were sort of like creatures of the forest, and a part of her had anticipated a completely vegetarian offering. Nothing could be further from the truth. There were dishes of smoked ham cut into strips, boiled eggs, and a small bowl in front of each of them filled with what she had taken to be fried onions at first. That was until she noticed the little browned bits moving.
Emily’s cross cultural experience on Earth had taught her that it was best to wait and watch how others behaved and then try to parrot their actions when dining for the first time in a new place. The lack of utensils was quickly explained as the male elf reached out with his right hand and picked up a slice of ham which he promptly shoved into his mouth. His wife did the same with an egg, which was a bit more comfortable for Emily and Mira than eating chunks of meat with their bare hands. Mira caused a slight stir when she reached for the cup of some brightly colored juice which was set in front of her with her left hand. A perfectly natural thing for a left handed person to do.
Emily however quickly caught the cue and said, “I apologize. In our home both hands are used for eating.” Both of their hosts’ eyes widened slightly as they exchanged a quick glance before the female elf said, “Do not worry. Here amongst the people it is considered rude to touch your food with your left hand. It is no bother here, and we do not wish to shame you, but it might cause quite a stir in the capital.”
Wanting to move past the awkward moment, Emily asked, “It is also the custom in my home to exchange names upon meeting someone new. I apologize but I have failed to ask your names.”
Again, a quick glance was exchanged and the woman spoke, “We certainly may share our names with you, but no moon elf will ask your name or even call you by name until you have first appeared before the Throne. This is not intended to offend you but only is because no Mitsukatta can be deemed to be of the moon elves until presented to the Throne. I will say though that the same does not apply to your daughter because of her mixed heritage. We would be happy to exchange names with such a lovely young woman and one who, if the rumors from the traveling party are to be believed, is quite an accomplished druid. Well perhaps not a druid but certainly a wielder of magic.”
Being presented to the Throne continued to take on a more and more ominous sense. Oh well, she had already agreed to it. There wasn’t much she could do about it now. Meanwhile, Mira, was soaking up the praise all while trying not to grin. What was it about teens and not wanting to smile too big, like if they
showed actual enthusiasm for something they’d be left vulnerable? “Well this is my daughter Miranda Nelson.”
Their hostess stood from the table and bowed slightly, “This is my esteemed mate and an enchanter of the Adept tier, Hiroto Niuchi, and I am Akira Niuchi. It lights up our night to meet you Miranda Nelson.”
Mira who had been quiet throughout the meal to that point burst out into rapid fire questions. “Enchanting? What does that entail? How can you be Adept tier? You must be very high level? Can you teach me enchanting? I’ve been thinking about it for a while now and really want to learn as much as I can.”
With a deep throaty chuckle Hiroto said, “The light of the new moon is always welcome.”
His odd statement caught Mira off guard, and she stopped spilling out her questions. But seeing her confusion, Akira said, “Forgive us please, we forget that you are not from here. Hiroto simply means that it is good to see your excitement. Given half a chance, he won’t stop talking about enchanting, but now is not the time as we must finish your meal, and soon you will have to be on your way to the capital.”
Mira and Emily looked at Hiroto who had barely spoken so rarely during their time and couldn’t quite reconcile that with a man who wouldn’t stop talking. Emily asked then, “Since I am already stretching your customs to their breaking point, may I ask what this dish is?” as she pointed at the bowl of what she had taken to be fried onion slivers.
Akira smiled, “It is no stretch as you say, if I understand your meaning. We are happy to answer your questions on almost any issue other than the Mitsukatta. By your question, I take it that you do not have kirashemi where you are from?” She paused for a moment and continued after receiving a nod in the affirmative from Emily. “It is what you might call a type of lichen. They grow around the roots of the iron wood tree and have a somewhat symbiotic relationship with the great trees. But if allowed to grow out of proportion, they can actually damage the roots. It is alive and moves in relation to the ambient mana in the atmosphere. We have found that it is good for digestion and also helps to cleanse your mana pathways. Other races find it to be poisonous, but any moon elf or even one such as young Miranda will find many benefits to eating it regularly.”
