Her father crumpled at Lorth’s feet as the Raven drove his blade skyward.
Moments passed; years passed; time folded into quiescence.
The Raven of Ostarin wiped and sheathed his blade, and picked up his cloak. As he strode to her, she lowered her gaze and stepped back.
“Here you are,” he said softly. He draped his cloak over her shoulders and pulled it around her. It smelled like him. “Forgive me. You had to know.”
She nodded. The wizard lifted her chin and turned her face to the moon. She flinched as his other hand felt around the swollen bruise there. “Did he do this?”
“Aye.” A tear sprang into her eye as her newfound loneliness consumed her. She inhaled sharply. Lorth put his arms around her, drew her close and soothed her in the wizard’s tongue. But Tansel didn’t weep for her father.
She wept for her innocence.
“Death is balance,” the hunter said against her hair. “It’s a frightening thing to know and a lonely thing to wield. It is the dominion of healers and hunters alike.”
Until you are ready to know the darkness.
Tansel wiped the tears from her face and lifted her chin with the strength of seasons. Only then did she understand.
The darkness was within.
The Heart of a Wizard
Aradia opened her eyes to light. For a moment, the winged apparition leaned over her with a serene expression, or so she thought, until her vision cleared. Enveloped in the fading image of shining wings, a wizard gazed down, his dark eyes moist with love and the lines on his face somehow softer than she remembered.
Aradia drew a breath. She lay on a bed surrounded by the scent of herbs and wood smoke. Her first thought concerned the dreadfully bitter thing in her mouth, which made her want to roll over and gag. She was too weak to move, and her throat was so parched she couldn’t speak.
“Grandfather,” her lips said, a bare whisper. “You brought me back.”
Caelfar brought her hand to his lips. “I did.”
“Open up,” said another voice, gently, from the other side of the bed. She turned her head as Eaglin knelt beside her and touched her lips. As she parted them, he deftly plucked a small leaf from her mouth, the source of the awful taste. He helped her into a sitting position, and then brought a cup to her lips. “Drink.”
Aradia could hardly hold the cup. It was water, blessedly cool. When she had drunk as much as she could, Eaglin handed her another cup. She touched it to her lips, smelling the broth of some animal, mushrooms, and herbs with rosy, lemony fragrances.
Eaglin looked at Caelfar. “Tansel is a seer. To think we had falistrom here the whole time.”
Aradia lowered her cup. “Tansel...”
Caelfar patted her hand. “She is fine. She’s in the kitchens with Freil. He has hardly left your side, you know.”
“Much happened while you were gone,” Eaglin said, his gray-green eyes calm with power. “When you gain your strength, we’ll fill you in.”
Caelfar leaned over and gazed into her cup. “Do drink that, now. Took me two cups to get the taste of falistrom from my mouth.”
Aradia drank, feeling thirst like a bottomless well. Falistrom! She might have guessed. Once she regained her voice, she said, “I saw a winged woman. In visions, and again, as I awoke.” She studied the space surrounding Caelfar. “I thought it was the Old One.”
The old wizard leaned back with a breath. “I did a terrible thing, and could not face it. In the powerful, this can take form. She would have destroyed me, had I not turned around.”
“The apparition was a manifestation of Caelfar’s heart,” Eaglin added. “His power, seeking healing.”
“She changed us both,” Aradia said, noticing again how different her grandfather looked, as if something had been lifted from him.
He lowered his gaze, nodding slowly. He breathed a laugh. “So it is. I’m better for it. As for you,” he said gently, taking her hand again, “I should like you to come live here with us.”
She hesitated. “What about Tansel?” She looked at Eaglin. “She has power, you know. Will you take her to the wizards’ citadel?”
“I believe Tansel has work to do here, first,” Eaglin said.
“As do I,” Caelfar said softly, caressing Aradia’s hand in his. “Will you join us?”
Aradia nodded, feeling alive for the very first time.
*
The morning sun rose from the mists and touched the forest surrounding Muin Hall. Eaglin sat on Sefae, filled with a sense of well-being. Through the aspen trees, the front gates of the hall stood silently. By his side, Lorth stood by Freya, fingering through his pack for something. Freil’s white horse Gwyrhr stood nearby, tearing at the leaves of a bush. A fourth horse bore Gabran, wrapped and bound in a sack.
They had said their farewells to Caelfar and his daughters amid silent tears and gratitude. Tansel had thrown her arms around him, and then Lorth, and made them promise to hold a place for her in Eyrie.
Eaglin leaned around and looked at Gabran. “It was kind of Gwion not to ask us to bring the body all the way to Caerroth. Port of Aefios will be far enough.”
Lorth yanked closed the drawstring on his pack and held up a piece of jerked venison. “Want some?” Eaglin shook his head. Lorth put the meat in his mouth and mounted. “He was an Albatross,” he said, chewing. “Burial at sea.”
“Death honors us all.”
Lorth nodded. “Where is Freil?”
“Here he comes.”
The blond wizard emerged from the gate in his cerulean cloak, a pack slung over his shoulder. Tansel walked by his side. He called her “Tansy” before taking her into his arms.
“Och!” Lorth choked. “Did you hear that? It must be love.”
Eaglin cleared his throat. “This is going to be a long trip.”
“He’ll survive. He’s going to be so busy when he gets back, he’ll barely have time to spill himself over her.”
Eaglin laughed. “Be nice.”
Before the gate, the youths embraced, touching and murmuring sweets to each other. Freil tilted his head down and caressed her mouth with his.
“It’ll give him something to work for,” Lorth said casually. “Muin will need a Raven to focus the Waeltower now that Caelfar has lost his cloak. Freil might get to come home, if he’s not careful.”
“Leaving Tansel in Eyrie studying for the Order of Wren? Don’t count on it.”
They were still kissing.
“Blast, let’s go,” Lorth said, shaking his head. “He can catch up.”
Eaglin released a whistle and whirled Sefae around.
As he looked back, Caelfar came out of the gate, smiling. He pointed into the woods. Freil let go of Tansel with visible reluctance. After one last farewell, he strode for the trees. He didn’t look back.
He took Gwyrhr’s reins and mounted. As he rode up beside his companions, he complained, “I don’t understand why I have to leave now.”
They rode down the path towards the village of Crowharrow.
“Tansel needs time with her family,” Lorth said.
“And you have the Darkstar awaiting you,” Eaglin added. As they reached a rise, the wizards paused and gazed back at the wooded tiers and roofs of the hall. A beam of sunlight hit the top of the Waeltower, now quiescent. Eaglin didn’t know how the Aenmos had appeared to Caelfar and put a blackring on him, but he had, for the Waeltower was dark. In contrast, the old man had fresh light around him as his heart gazed afar into the Otherworld. “Next spring,” Eaglin intuited. “Tansel will be ready for company then, I think.”
“That’s nearly a year from now,” Freil groaned. “I shall go mad.”
“Speaking of mad,” Lorth said to Eaglin, “what did you and Caelfar decide to do about the voidstone?”
“Didn’t I tell you? I decided to bring it with us. I put it in your cloak for safekeeping.”
Only a fraction of a second passed before Lorth realized he was kidding, but in that space, the s
tartled look in his wolfish eyes caused Eaglin to double over with laughter.
“Not nice,” the hunter said.
Freil returned from a daydream. “Now that Caelfar has been stripped of his powers, won’t they be in danger from the sioros?”
Eaglin wiped the laughter from his face. “Aradia must return the voidstone to him. Presently, she needs to heal.”
“Old One’s domain,” Lorth said.
“Aye, so he won’t come after her until she’s strong enough to complete the cycle. Until then, the stone is hidden. And if anything does go amiss, Tansel knows how to call me.”
Freil leaned forward in his saddle. “Don’t tell me. The Rites?”
Eaglin answered him with a High Dark smile.
“Rank has its privileges,” Lorth said.
As Eaglin gazed at the sun illuminating the garnet facets of the Waeltower rising up through the trees, he recalled his father’s words. All things fall to the Destroyer. But that was only part of the cycle. Tansel’s grief for the things she had lost would be healed by her strength, her garden, and the love of her family. She wouldn’t need to call on him.
The Keepers turned and clopped down the rise into the blue green shadows of the wood, and then rode east in a thundering whirlwind that left silence and peace in Loralin Forest.
Epilogue
The eve of the autumnal equinox came three days before the dark moon. The late afternoon sun cast long shadows on the forest, fading to purple, orange, and red amid the dark greens of late summer. The air smelled of harvests and carpets of leaves and flowers fallen to a tapestry of goldenrod, aster, and fleabane.
Tansel and Aradia moved with strong purpose through a silent glade of birch and ash. In a nearby streambed, they found mossy stones which, over many trips, they brought to a hollow dense with ferns. There, they built a cairn.
Baskets overflowing with plants from Tansel’s garden in Muin sat nearby. That morning, she had carefully gathered stalks, leaves, roots and flowers of death and rebirth; plants her mother had loved, Aradia’s mother had loved, and hers before her.
In the bottom of Aradia’s basket, surrounded by periwinkle, ivy and rue, lay a fang-shaped void.
When they had finished, they stood back and admired their work. The cairn was neat and strong, round, as high as their waists. In the center, on top, Aradia placed a bowl that had belonged to Kalein. In that, she put the rooty herb she had burned for the Old One seven years before.
The women smiled at each other. Tansel picked up the baskets and handed one to Aradia. As they placed each leaf, root and blossom on the cairn in honor of the dead, Tansel sang softly. When their baskets were empty, Aradia drew forth the crowharrow’s voidstone and set it into the bowl. Then she and her niece clasped hands and stood before the grave of their mothers.
“The cycle is complete,” Aradia said.
“May Loralin remember our mothers until the sky becomes the earth, and the sun becomes the sea,” Tansel added quietly.
They stood there in silence as wind caressed the forest. Then they fetched their baskets and walked from the clearing and into the hilly woodlands north of Muin.
“Do you think he’ll come for it?” Tansel asked, glancing back through the trees at the cairn. She half expected to see the winged hunter leaning over the bowl. But only the trees nodded to the shadows.
“Aye, he will,” replied her aunt, folding Tansel’s arm in hers. “Come, let’s get home before nightfall. Da will be expecting us for the harvest feast. He’s very excited about it, you know.”
Tansel took a deep breath of the autumn air as she envisioned her great grandfather, now an old man and not a wizard, a vine patch open to the light and a broad oak tree. “He asked me to bring him some catmint. He likes it in his evening tea and the cats ate up all the mint in the garden.”
“Ah. I know where some grows, safe from early frosts. It’s on the way. But I don’t think he wants it for tea. He’s keeping it for Nasturtium’s kittens.”
Tansel smiled. “Mushroom did not stay well in the garden.”
“Well he had good reason, didn’t he?” her aunt said with a dry laugh.
“That, he did.” Arm in arm, the women walked through the forest, talking softly and without fear as the wings of night settled around them.
Glossary
Aenmos (EN mohs): In Aenspeak, “creator.” Cast in the male sense. Used as a formal title and address for Ealiron, or for any Formation entity. See also Ealiron, Formation entity.
Aenlisarfon (en LIS arvon): A council of nine wizards of the Order of Raven who watch over the patterns of human and immortal energies in the higher spheres of consciousness that permeate the world of Ealiron. See also Keepers of the Eye.
Aenspeak (EN speak): An ancient language used by wizards to invoke and focus power. Comes from the word aen, which roughly means, “the primary fire” or “the source of sound.” Aenspeak is informally referred to as the wizard’s tongue, and is a higher, more structured form of the Dark Tongue, which is differentiated from it. See also Dark Tongue.
Albatross: A Keeper of the Crafts trained in the arts of seafaring. Holds limited powers of the Eye pertaining to working weather and elemental forces. See also Keepers of the Eye, Keepers of the Crafts.
Apparition: A perceivable thoughtform consciously created from a wizard’s essence to perform a certain task. Apparitions are able to pass between dimensions of consciousness, including the physical.
Asmoralin (as MOR ah lin): A large, rugged, arid realm southeast of Sourcesee.
Aspect: A self-aware portion of an entity’s essence, focused on the time-space matrix to express that part of the entity’s nature. Aspects are a part of the creator, yet also possess individuality and free will, including living things such as humans, animals, plants, trees, and immortal creatures such as sioros and loerfalos. Term also refers to the perceivable manifestations of the Old One, such as the Destroyer. See also Entity, Old One.
Blackring: A permanent injunction by the Aenmos that renders a wizard of the Order of Raven unable to focus energy in certain patterns and frequencies beyond the mortal spectrum, thus making those powers latent. See also Keeper of the Eye.
Breasin felos oth: In Aenspeak, “May starlight shine.” A greeting. Refers to the position of the stars during one’s birth. See also Aenspeak.
Crowharrow: A village in the Forest of Loralin. Named after a legendary immortal creature that goes by the same name in local folklore. See sioros.
Darkstar: A title for a Keeper of the Eye of the Order of Osprey who is studying for the Order of Raven. Standard contains a black, interwoven hexagram that shadows the symbol of Osprey. See also Keeper of the Eye.
Dark Tongue: The language of the Old One, of formlessness; primary sound that emerges from Void and is used to affect things at the most basic levels. See also Aenspeak, Old One.
Destroyer: The darkest aspect of the Old One. The force of death, transformation and change. Sometimes appears as a black cloaked figure or a wolf. See also Old One.
Ealiron (ee ah LEER un): First Formation entity in the Pentacle of Eaon. Creator of the world. Also called the Source, or Aenmos. See also Aenmos, Formation entity.
Elemental summoning: The ability to use Aenspeak to invoke the forces of water, earth, air or fire in order to affect physical events.
Energy shield: A pattern of energy used by wizards to cloak or alter their or another’s physical appearance, emotions or impressions.
Entity: The multidimensional aspect of a human soul, a greater essence or consciousness that encompasses all the personalities of its expression, which are assumed to exist simultaneously; that is, beyond the time-space matrix. See also Formation entity, Time-space matrix.
Essence Return: A command that focuses something into its most basic elements. Can only be spoken in the Dark Tongue. See also Dark Tongue.
Eusiron (ee yew SHY run): Fourth Formation entity in the Pentacle of Eaon. A war god referred to as the Dark Warrior and said
to have built the palace of Eusiron, which is named after him. Palace is located in western Sourcesee and overlooks the Wolf River; standard is a circle with a wolf in the center, a river beneath and mountains above crowned by the constellation of Laerstroc. See also Formation entity.
Eusiron’s Haunt: A dense, uncanny wooded area south of the palace of Eusiron, rumored to be directly focused and controlled by the god himself.
Eyrie (EYE ree): The seat of the Keepers of the Eye and home of Ealiron. Contains a Waeltower that focuses the Source. Standard is an eye in the center of a circle surrounded by the shining rays of a sun. Located in the land of Roth, in eastern Sourcesee. See also Ealiron, Keepers of the Eye, Source, Waeltower.
Falistrom: A rare and poisonous herb used to heal a broken heart.
First One: An immortal aspect created by a union between the Old One and an entity named Om. See also Aspect, Entity, Old One.
Formation entity: A divine being that creates the basic structures that comprise physical reality. Formation entities are interconnected by energy that flows within an infinitely complex network that sustains all life. See also Entity.
Grid: Informal. See Time-space matrix.
High Dark: A priest of Maern chosen by a circle of high priestesses for being the most aware of and able to understand the nature of the Old One’s domain.
High wizard: Informal. Refers to wizards in the Orders of Owl, Eagle, Osprey and Raven, the highest four orders of the Keepers of the Eye. See also Keepers of the Eye.
Interdimensional portal: A highly advanced command used by wizards to create a rift in time-space without altering dimensions. Invoked using the Dark Tongue, which changes the structure of perceivable reality as it emerges from formlessness. See also Dark Tongue.
iomor (EE oh mor): In the Dark Tongue, “light well.” A well of energy fixed in a specific area of the earth; the exteriorized essence of the entity of that particular realm focused as a pure energy source. The Masters of the Eye focus the energy of the iomors using Waeltowers. See also Entity, Master of the Eye, Waeltower.
Keepers of the Crafts: A group of orders in the Keepers of the Eye with specific powers pertaining to the following: Wren (healers), Albatross (sailors), and Raptor (warriors). See also Keepers of the Eye.
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