by Rex Foote
“What’s wrong?” he asked, his expression worried and his eyes searching frantically for anything that could have caused this.
“I am fine,” she sighed, letting out a deep, weary breath. “It’s just that no matter what they did or said, they are still my parents. I have fond memories of both of them, and despite their overprotective nature, they still love me, and I still love them. But I just finished telling them that I didn’t want what they were offering anymore. I don’t think I will ever be able to forget their expressions.”
He nodded, understanding instantly what she felt.
“Well, then, I may have a way to make you feel better.”
She raised an eyebrow. “How?”
In reply, he looked back towards the city. “Let’s go and see my father.”
***
They found Taegen sitting in the upper platform perched among the branches of the tree that dominated the envoy’s compound. He was gazing out into the city, and his mind must have been elsewhere, because Hark was able to come up a few feet behind him without noticing, then clearing his throat, Hark said, “Father?”
Taegen turned slowly in his chair as if he knew that voice but couldn’t place it, then he turned fully and saw Hark standing before him, with Esme at his side. Upon seeing his son, his face split into a broad smile full of relief, and he rose, coming to embrace his son tightly as relieved laughter escaped his throat. For his part, Hark hugged him back, and they held the embrace for a few minutes, relief and love evident in the embrace. Esme felt she shouldn’t be seeing this, that it was a private moment she had no right to see, and turned to go when Taegen’s voice called out, “Wait.”
She turned back to see Taegen, his face awash with happiness and joy. It was so open she felt a moment’s envy, but she quickly banished the thought. Coming over to her, with Hark just behind him, he hugged her.
“Thank you for taking care of my son.”
She pushed away gently, laughing as she did so.
“He was the one doing all the caring. It was my rash choice that started all this.”
“He wouldn’t have been able to stay in this city without you, and I am confident that during your trip you both looked out for one another. I have always believed that together there is nothing you two can’t do.”
He gestured for them to sit with him on the overlook and called for an aide to bring refreshments. Once seated, he asked, “So tell me, what have you been up to these last fifty days?”
And so they told him. Esme may have wanted to keep some details from him, but she quickly dismissed the idea; here was someone with whom she could be at ease being utterly truthful with, and she had to laugh inwardly that it was only with Hark and his father that she felt that sense of security. Taegen was an attentive listener picking the right breaks in their story to ask questions. When they got the part about Kellan and his band, he frowned and, leaning back in his chair, asked, “You didn’t happen to see an Elreni mage around that time?”
The pair looked at each other. “No,” Hark offered, but then a thought struck him. “Although the Ohruin did have a bad shoulder wound; some sort of spear or length of wood was stuck in there. Maybe that was the work of this mage?” Then another thought struck him. “Wait, why would you think a mage was out there with us?”
“The Feyweaver staying with us offered to go after you the same night I spoke with Averie and Michale and learned that they had sent the adventurers after you.” He splayed his hands out in a gesture of peace. “I was worried about you.”
Hark took his father’s hand to show him that he understood, and they carried on with their tale. When Esme told about her desperate use of magic and loss of her arm, Taegen’s face grew dark with anger, but he remained slient. That anger passed quickly when Hark spoke of the cave and his confession of love to Esme; at this, his father gave them both an approving and warm smile devoid of any of the earlier darkness. They finished their tale with Esme repeating the events at Caladaria’s northern gate. As she finished speaking, Taegen’s gaze rested on her, and in it she saw the deep sympathy he felt for her.
“The ways of Humans are indeed strange to me,” he murmured. “Their daughter finds her true calling, and they are disappointed that it was not what they wanted it to be. Know that you will always be welcome here, if nowhere else in this city.”
She thanked him for the kind offer and pushed away the thoughts of her parents. Perhaps one day there could be peace between them, but for now she would have to leave them behind. Taegen turned his gaze back to his son and said, “I always knew you two would be good for each other. From the day Hark came home telling me about this Human girl he met playing in the mud, I had a feeling that you two would become inseparable, despite some people’s attempts to break you apart. I assume that you don’t plan on staying long?”
“No,” they both said at once.
The corners of his mouth twitched upwards in a smile as he said, “Then all I ask is that you stay here, with me, for a few days. Give yourselves time to rest and relax before heading out. And besides, you have to give me time to get supplies for you, and I assume that you will want to buy decent traveling clothes.” He regarded their garb of ragged animal hide with a raised eyebrow.
“Thank you,” Esme began. “We will stay, of course, but we don’t have any money to buy new clothes.”
“Oh, that shouldn’t be an issue at all.”
***
They stayed three days in Caladaria, just relaxing and getting some well-earned rest. They slept in Hark’s room, together in a large bed Taegen had brought up. During their time in the city, Hark trained with the bow and knife as often as he could, recognizing that the new life he and Esme had chosen would be dangerous at times, and he never wanted to be caught unprepared. During the second day, his father presented Hark with a traditional Elreni blade; a short, one-sided, heavy chopping blade with a the design of an interweaving vine tooled into its grip. After thanking his father, Hark asked whose it had been, and Taegen told him that the Feyweaver, Vulmer, had been working on it the night Taegen had talked to him and that no one seemed to know whose it was, and that Hark would have the best use for it.
For her part, Esme spent most of her time in the compound, relaxing in the shade of the great tree and just enjoying not doing anything. She only broke this trend once, on the third day, just before the final evening with Hark’s father.
***
She stood before the gateway that led to the Caladarian Mages’ Guild. Dressed in comfortable traveling clothes and a warm fur-lined coat, she watched as a tall middle-aged fellow with a bald head and a narrow face came forward and stopped just short of her, regarding her with an unreadable expression.
“So, you gave it all up?” he asked.
“Yes, Dornvus,” she replied, “I did.”
He snorted. “I might have known. You never did have the resolve, the will, or the desire to become a proper mage.”
She laughed. “The Guild doesn’t have a monopoly on proper mages.”
“Is that what you think? We are the only official, safe place where mages can come to study and to learn in peace. Any other education is worse off for lack of security, at the very least.”
“I met an Ohruin shaman on my travels. He never went to this Guild, but he was far wiser than you or anyone else at this Guild, and I wager far more powerful.”
Dornvus met her words with a disinterested scowl. “Why have you come back, Esme? To see for the last time what you are turning your back on?”
“Yes.”
His expression changed from disdain into confusion.
“What?”
“Yes, I wanted to come back to see the Guild and remember all it stood for. To see if my old life still had any pull on me or if there was anything that could be said to make me want to go back.”
“And?”
“There is nothing here for me.”
She turned and had started to walk away when her old teacher’s shrill c
ry sounded behind her.
“Go, then, back to your Elreni lover. You better get him out of here if you want to keep him safe.”
She turned back to him, her gaze fierce.
“What does that mean?”
“It means,” he said with a triumphant smirk on his face, “that soon the Elreni will be taught their place, and the mages of Caladaria will be the ones to beat it into them.”
She turned her back to him and walked off into the chill evening, his words echoing around her head. She reached the compound just before dinner and sat beside Hark, and they ate and talked with Hark’s father, enjoying their final evening together, and soon the whole confrontation with Dornvus was forgotten.
Epilogue
28th Day of Jiva. The Season of Light. Year 250.
It was warm the morning they left Caladaria. They were dressed in light yet well-fitting traveling clothes, bearing packs filled with supplies from Taegen’s own stores. Hark’s father had come with them to see them off, and he too would soon depart the city to spend the winter in the Kuddin Woods with his people. He wished the pair well on their travels and told them that if they ever needed a safe haven, then they could always come to visit him in either the Kuddin Woods or Caladaria, and that the compound guards would be told to always let them in and to give them the run of the place if they called and he wasn’t there. They walked down the winding trail to the base of the slope and paused.
Esme took Hark’s hand, looked him in the eye, and said, “Ready?”
“Am I ready? I thought you would never leave; you looked like you were enjoying yourself too much.” He gave her a wry grin as he spoke, and she slapped at his arm without malice.
“No, I learned my lesson about that the first time round.”
They set out at a steady pace and soon reached the small copse where the pair had stopped the first night Esme had left Caladaria. As they passed it, something prickled the back of Esme’s neck, and she turned back toward the city.
“Who are they?” she asked, and Hark turned to see a column of troops marching down the road from the city. They were clad in brown leather coats and were dressed more for travel than combat, though each did carry a bow and sword on their backs.
“No idea,” he replied.
She shrugged and set off once more, Hark at her side.
“It doesn’t matter,” she told him. “I doubt they are going to the same place we are.”
***
On a small hill just visible from the road leading out from Caladaria stood a woman. This woman was of medium height, with a well-muscled build that spoke of a lifetime of fighting and combat. She was dressed in a neck-to-knee-length chainmail coat and had leather arm and shin guards. She wore a shield on her back, a sword on her hip, and her face was hidden in the shadow of a full iron helm. She watched the column of Humans leave the city and begin to move northward. From the shadows within her helmet, the white flash of her teeth shaped into a savage grin.
“At last, it has begun.”
Dramatis Personae
Hark Ulaneiros: Male Elreni, Son of Taegen, Friend of Esme.
Esme Lane: Female Human, Daughter of Michale and Averie, Friend of Hark, Mage.
Michale Lane: Male Human, Husband of Sara, Father of Esme, Merchant.
Averie Lane: Female Human, Wife of Michale, Mother of Esme, Mage.
Taegen Ulaneiros: Male Elreni, Elreni Envoy to Caladaria, Farther of Hark.
Lyra Yisfir: Female Elreni, Chief Aide to Taegen.
Dornvus Lambert: Male Human, Teacher of Esme, Mage.
Anita Storkhelm: Female Human, Gate Sargent of Caladaria/Member of the Caladarian Expeditionary Force.
Orgha: Male Ohruin, Tracker, Member of Yatur’s Tribe.
Yatur: Male Ohruin Shaman.
Bula: Female Ohruin,Member of Yatur’s Tribe.
Kegth: Male Ohruin, Member of Yatur’s Tribe.
Yagnar: Male Ohruin, Member of Yatur’s Tribe.
Colt Bridges: Male Human, Sargent in the Caladarian City Watch.
Kellan Ellison: Male Human, adventurer.
Aiden Marsh: Male Human, adventurer, Mage.
Mul: Female Ohruin, Tracker with Kellan.
Vulmer Rotris: Male Elreni, Feyweaver.
John Gibson: Male Human, Captain in the Caladaria City Watch.
Samson Avery: Male Human, King of Esmor.
Randa Yount: Female Human, Captain of the Caladarian Expeditionary Force.
Tales From Westruna Online
Blog/Website
http://talesfromwestruna.blogspot.co.nz/?zx=8f1dbbaea425d58c
Facebook Page
https://www.facebook.com/Talesfromwestruna/
Email Address
[email protected]
The Human and Sarven Calendar
On Unith, Humans and Sarven not only share a pantheon of gods, but also a calendar. This is in part due to their shared pantheon, as each month in the calendar is named after a god.
The planet of Westruna, of which Unith is a continent, takes three hundred and sixty days to orbit its sun. The Human and Sarven calendar divides the year up into twelve months, and those months are grouped into four seasons. Each month is thirty days long.
The calendar is as follows:
The Season of Dawn (Months 1 to 3):
Month 1 = Release
Month 2 = Pagorr
Month 3 = Axnera
The Season of Light (Months 4 to 6):
Month 4 = Daaris
Month 5 = Jiva
Month 6 = Prime
The Season of Dusk (Months 7 to 9):
Month 7 = Tuemis
Month 8 = Aeyar
Month 9 = Hearth
The Dark Season: (Months 10 to 12):
Month 10 = Rime
Month 11 = Bone
Month 12 = Crone
There are four important dates in the calander: Year’s End (30th Day of Crone), Year’s Rebirth (1st Day of Release), Brewmer (the middle of the Season of Light, 15th day of Prime), and Arkter (the middle of the Dark Season, 15th Day of Bone).
