ishte | The Great Write

Chapter 13 – The First Alliance

Rowan slept through much of the next three days. He was aware of his friends around him, his sister often close at hand. Sometimes they spoke for a little while, but it seemed he could not keep awake long enough to finish a conversation, so they spoke of inconsequential things. Elven healers came to visit often, and Rowan was aware that his pain was hardly mentionable even if he slept most of the time. The healers told him that he needn’t be concerned. His body needed the rest, and the medicines only made sure he was getting as much as possible while he healed.

On the third day though, Rowan was more alert though, and Ash propped him up on some pillows to help him eat the light breakfast that had been brought. Teren and Dialah were sitting at a little table they had pulled close to the bed. He might have asked them some questions now that he was alert enough to think of them, but Arin entered before the first question was fully formed.

“I’m pleased to see you awake, Rowan,” the old elf said with a concerned frown. “How are you feeling?”

“Better, I think,” Rowan confirmed. “Though, to be honest, I’m not sure I felt all that bad. I was just asleep all the time.”

Arin nodded. “I had the best of my doctors caring for you. Why did you not tell us you’d been fighting a Melkadi addition, Rowan? There was much we could have done right away to ease your withdrawal.”

“That may have been one of the reasons Torok sent us to you first,” Dialah said. “I think perhaps it was, but things did not work out quite as she’d planned I think.”

“No,” Ash agreed helping Rowan drink from his tea, his own hands clumsy with three days of sleepiness. “Not knowing what she really wanted, we made different choices than those she might have advised us to make.”

“Never mind that now,” Arin soothed her. “Teren has told me about that now, and I think he may have been right at least in as much as that in the long run it would have been harder for him. He should mend more quickly now that he has more knowledgeable care.”

Teren seemed to bristle a little at that, his face darkening.

“Now mind that temper Teren Brightwood,” the old elf warned. “There are differences between Men and Elves, and some things do not work as well for them, and some do not work as well for us. You have learned a great deal out in your forests, speaking with your surroundings. But you can’t know everything in so few years. My folk here have perhaps less natural talent than you but many more years of study and experience. You did well by Rowan. I do not diminish that simply by mentioning a truth. He is in better hands now, and in a place he can rest safer and mend completely. The regency isn’t here. Not yet at least. Not in force, though I suspect there are spies even close by me. I can’t keep their presence here secret forever, and they must continue with The Quest anyway, but at least they can have haven here for a little while to rest and heal.”

Teren nodded. He still seemed a little sullen, but at least he was more or less mollified.

“Listen, children,” Arin began.

Rowan might have taken offense, but Torok had called them the same, and Ash had been right to point out that they were barely more than children. He was sure from the old Elf’s point of view they must have truly been children.

“We have talked already some about the history of the Ruling line of Merisala. You have told me of that. What you two may not have realized was that you were being hunted out of your home in Langley Crossing because of your own lineage, which comes to you from your blood mother. Tarabin, who married your father, knew nothing of it. At least so I had heard, but it seems that the Regency traced the bloodline anyway, and indeed began to intimidate her sorely.”

“Tarabin was very afraid of their magic,” Ash provided helpfully.

“Yes,” Arin nodded, but then he shrugged off the whole conversation. “Be that as it may. I think that even if the bloodline hadn’t been real, if say, Tarabin had birthed the two of you, I think that Torok may still have chosen you. Even from your father’s heritage there is a noble line, and much merit. She must have seen something special in you two. Some glow only the Balance and the Passion could see. Obviously despite Rowan’s addiction, Torok though you fit for the task.

“It was my addiction,” Ash said quietly, her head bowed.

Rowan’s heart nearly broke for the hundredth time. He hated the shame she had for something that she had not done to herself, that she could not have prevented or even known was happening to her.

“Yours?” The old Sun Elf asked his hand resting on the crown of the girl’s head even as Rowan reached for his sister’s hand.

“Torok,” Rowan began. “She felt the best way to heal Ash was to have us switch places.

“More than just the addiction was switched, Lord Arin,” Dialah explained. “Really the essences of their very being was changed.”

“I begin to understand a little more now,” Arin nodded still petting Ash’s red hair. “I did not recognize you two, though I’d heard of you before. Oh yes,” he confirmed when Ash raised her head and both she and Rowan gave him sharp glances. “I have of course heard of you. Torok is not the only one who has kept track of the old bloodlines. You do not resemble the Ash and Rowan I should have been looking for though.” Gnarled fingers stroked through Ash’s vibrantly colored hair. “I expected a slight young man with this hair, and a sturdy young woman with dark curls. Until your names were spoken to me I hardly gave you a glance. Then…” He trailed off.

“You suspected us to be liars?” Rowan asked guardedly?

“No!” Arin laughed, “Certainly not. Not once I heard your names, and then my attention was on you fully. I can still feel the magic Torok used to transform you, though it is weeks old now, and fading as you yourselves grow accustomed to it, you project it less. That’s best. If I can sense it, a Regency Mage would certainly take note of it.”

“We tried to keep hidden for the first few days,” Dialah explained. “We stayed off the main roads and slept where we could. But then—”

“Then I insisted on Rowan’s comfort over our safety,” Ash interrupted. They had been fortunate and nothing untoward had occurred, but she was not about to have Dialah taking the blame for their lack of caution.

“I could scarcely sense the magic any more, even though I knew it was there, so I thought perhaps it would be well.”

“And so it was,” Arin agreed. “I did not note it until I looked for it. I looked for it because I did not see what I expected to when I heard their names. It seems that you two have settled into your new forms quite comfortably.” An odd smile quirked his lips. “Is it not strange?” he asked.

“Strange?” Rowan wanted to know. “What do you mean?” He caught a sharp look from his sister, apparently his tone could improve in her mind.

“Strange in what way, My Lord?” Ash asked more gently.

“Is it not strange for you?” Arin repeated. “Having grown up to be a man, and now to be a woman? You Rowan? To have been a girl child and suddenly to be a man? Do you have a man’s desires? A man’s emotions? Ash,” his eyes sought hers. “Do you have a woman’s attractions now?”

Rowan and Ash stared at each other for a moment. Rowan could tell from Ash’s face that like him, the thought had never occurred to her. Perhaps it shouldn’t either, he thought. “We… have really avoided human contact, to be honest, My Lord,” he said finally.

Ash nodded. “It would be strange wouldn’t it? If you mean what I think you do. It wouldn’t do to follow an attraction to its logical conclusion now. Korot means to restore us to our original forms. So it would be terribly unfair to fall in love, both to us and to our lovers, would it not?”

“Perhaps,” Arin shrugged. “Though we believe that love transcends the boundaries of the flesh. I meant only—I was merely curious—whether you’d noticed any difference in how you felt about things like that.”

“It hadn’t occurred to us,” Rowan said, meaning to close the subject. Ash was blushing terribly, and he also found the conversation strange and a little uncomfortable.

“You said,” Ash began, obviously ready for the subject to change as well, “that you thought Torok and Korot might have chosen us even if we had not carried the correct bloodline.” A little frown marred her pretty brow. “How could she? Why would she?”

“I think perhaps,” Arin answered, “That Torok—and probably Korot with her—probably felt after seventeen generations, that even an illegitimate pair would be better than a continuance of the corruption that the Regency has become. Who am I to argue with the Balance of Merisala?” he added with a wry grin. I can’t say as I disagree with her either, just between us here. The Regency was never meant to carry on as it has. Certainly it was never intended to use its power in the way it has in recent years. You have been very sheltered, Ash and Rowan, Rowan and Ash. The west is not as hard under the thumb of the Regents, but in the East… The closer you come to Takul Hai, the more dire the conditions. There are rumors that the Regency wishes to restore the great technologies.”

“What?” Rowan pushed himself more upright against the pillows. “Whatever would they want such a thing for? Didn’t that destroy our world once already?”

“That is so,” Dialah nodded. “Our people,” she gestured between the Sun Elf and herself, “Both Trowsidhe and Jerdasidhe have been diminished greatly because of what happened. Perhaps it was even the cause of generations of war between us. Though eventually those differences have been settled, even now in the past few generations, there is a growing distrust that is—”

“Perhaps manipulated by the Regency,” Arin told her. “We are told many things. Men have long been the go between of all our trade and all communication that goes on between us. It has seemed the compromise necessary to keep the peace, but now I come to wonder if it has benefitted either of our peoples. Consider this dark priesthood growing among the Trowsidhe Lady Dialah, and how they have sought to disown you from your own people because you—you are dangerous to them. You have the potential to be something special among your people. Perhaps they know as your people have seemed to forget that one such as yourself has often led your people. Some of the greatest of your ruling lines have been silver eyed. It goes beyond the potential you have for magic. I would question deeply where this growing religion has come from. It seems so unlike your people even as I know them to be.”

“Which is not saying much,” Dialah added bitterly. “We have long been fed stories of Jerdasidhe enslaving such Trowsidhe as they can find and keep. I have not seen such. Now that I see your people, though they are perhaps more arrogant than we,” she held up a hand to stop the protest, “or perhaps that was only directed towards me because of my race. Who knows. But I was hardly treated as someone they sought to enslave, and I hardly think it had anything to do with Teren’s words of warning either,” she added offering the younger Sun Elf a playful scowl.

"So…" Rowan watched the Elf lord speculatively. He was tiring again, his back uncomfortable propped as it was even against such soft pillows. "The short of it is, you mean to say that now you’ve spoken with us a while, and considered our situation, you've decided to how to advise us?"

Arin sighed. "Let us say I have decided how to begin. First let me say that I am sorry for misjudging you in the beginning. I should not have laughed," he said. "I had no right really, to think ill of any of you. We have become such and insular people," he frowned. "And maybe to some degree all our races have done so as we have been discussing. You will have some task ahead of you if you are to reunite them all, Ash and Rowan.”

“And do not believe for a moment that is not a large part of your quest either,” Teren told them. “I am very sure that it is. You cannot expect to just walk into Takul Hai and step up to the Twin thrones and have The Regency calmly step aside for you.”

Rowan frowned at that. They’d have to raise armies, and find a way to depose the Council of Regents before that could happen. How could Torok expect them to be capable of all this? He wondered. It wasn’t like Langley Crossing was a backwater, but at the same time, it was far removed from the machinations of Takul Hai, and even though Rowan had trained under a former soldier, that hardly meant they had any remote knowledge of strategy or leadership. He glanced at his sister and saw the same doubt growing in her mind. He could feel it there, like a worm, but he saw her squash it, her face growing determined.

“We’re going to need allies, My Lord,” she said, “and the support of all the people’s of Merisala. That will not be simple.”

“No,” Arin agreed. “But The Quest will help you find those alliances too. You must collect the Regalia, yes? Those symbols are scattered throughout the land with all the different people’s. But here we have the first three. Two from one source long torn asunder. Perhaps Teren has been right these many days that it is a misplaced distrust we have between our peoples, Lady Dialah," he said at last. He extended his hand towards the Drow with his palm facing her, and bowed his head slightly in respect. "Perhaps that is a start after all."

Dialah started at the palm of Arin's hand for a long moment. Her frown deepened until Rowan thought she might reject the gesture. But then, the Drow's hand came up and she pressed her palm against that of the Sun Elf. “My Lord Arin of the Jerdasidhe,” she began. “Our first alliance at the beginning of the quest was with Teren Brightwood. He gave himself to us unasked when we were in need, and showed himself to be a true ally to us. Let this first alliance between our people reflect that goodwill.” She dropped her hand then, nodding her head as well. “I do not know how well I will spread that goodwill back to my people when we come to them, but I will try,” she frowned. “On that you may rely.”

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Note: Still a bit behind. I didn't write at all on Tuesday, I was too busy watching the election returns and I was also pretty lazy about it on the 5th because I stayed up to late and it was my birthday, and the venue I chose to try to do some hand writing didn't work out too well for me either. But Slowly I'm catching up with myself. Right now I'm only 3474 words behind which is really not so bad. I think I wrote about 3000 words today and finished chapter 13 as well. (which was 2600 just by itself.) Still an hour left before midnight too, and I'll probably get started on Chapter 14 - Marillis before I retire for the night. Marillis... heee.

The Great Write - Day Eight

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