1.3 Answer the Call

General Summary

Day 5

Rosalia shows me around the town, which is 500-700 humans. We plan to stay for a day and leave tomorrow morning to stop the madness. Maybe that will give these humans a reason to trust me, because clearly Elder Haman does not.   We stop at a small inn for food. It seems like a friendly, communal place. A young girl, maybe 14 years old, is behind the bar. She stares at my ears, which I suppose I need to get used to. I like children - they’re curious and not hateful the way that adults are, so I offer to let her touch them. To my delight, she thinks they’re neat, not evil!   I still have to do a little bit of persuading to convince her that elves are not necessarily evil. She’s easily convinced. I hope the others are as well. Most wonderfully, she shows me her magic! She can conjure a tiny multi-coloured flame and apparently Elder Haman tells her that she could be a mystic someday if she works hard. I hope she does it. I think she would make a fine mystic, probably better than Elder Haman if he doesn’t squash her spirit with his hate.   She leaves us with our food and excitedly points me out to various patrons in the bar. Understandably, I’m nervous when an enormous brick wall of a man approaches me and asks why I’m here. The mood changes when he offers me an elven silver coin “to repay a debt” and haltingly tells me “I am called by the Ancient Blood - my life to serve” in my own language. He introduces himself as Bran.   Apparently he met a mystic in Ipth who taught him and travelled with him for two years. He died a year ago in the mountains fighting off a giant, but said that it was the wrong time to die. That life hadn’t given him what it was supposed to. His name was Thalien, and I have a flashback:  

Walking in the moonlight beside a river. I’m talking to an elf with dusky skin, pitch-black hair, and piercing blue eyes. As we walk along the river, he’s singing. As he sings, life around us perks up and notices. The plants seem to grow a little bit, flowers that are dormant open even in the middle of the night. I hear fish splashing nearby in the river. It’s a peaceful song of celebration, joy, life, birth, and renewal. When he finishes his song, he looks at me and says “I know you didn’t want to ask but where there’s life there’s hope. And I choose to carry that hope with me. He kneels in front of me, “Always, in her name”

  Naturally, we headed back to the man’s shop to continue our conversation. He’s the village smith, I think. His shop is full of tools, not weapons. He moves boxes of metal aside like they’re nothing and reveals a cabinet full of beautiful weaponry. They’re clearly elven, but made from human materials. They’re missing the ornate decorations and lustre of elven weapons. Thalien taught him this - how to sing to the metal while he forges. Rosalia is taken aback but I’m not. I suppose things become less shocking when you have no frame of reference.   Bran runs his hand along the blade of an axe and elven runes glow across the blade. I can feel his magic like a flood behind a dam. The drums of war, the clank of armour and weapons, the energy of a battle yet to come. For a moment I can see the shadow of Thalien beside him.   Bran knows he’s a mystic, but he’s an elven mystic. His power is elven, pure and simple. Thalien must have taught him well. He says he has no ties to this town and has been waiting for me without knowing what he was waiting for. He feels a song calling him and he knows that the time will come to march. He’s a war mystic. It suits him.   So now our party is three. Perhaps four - Bran says he has a friend in Ipth who might belong with us.   With the rest of the day, we journey to Thalien’s grave. It’s beside a small pond, behind a waterfall in a natural grotto. Bran sings and fireflies gather around him to light the way...it’s beautiful.   The grave is a small pile of stones and one of them has a hand-carved magic circle that matches the one on Dal’s arm and my hand. I know how this works - I drip some of my blood on it and instantly, Thalien is before me, smiling. I know it’s not him, the same way that Dal wasn’t quite Dal. How many friends have I sent here to die and greet me as spectres?   “We were supposed to have so many more years,” he tells me. He tells me that our plans weren’t supposed to end like this, but he has things to tell me before he leaves me again. There is another Fate Spinner here, working to unravel what we were trying to create. He had been trying to find this Fate Spinner, and his journey led him here. This Spinner spins chaos and they bring a great darkness. People here, humans, are using ancient teachings without understanding their consequences.   “I know you’ll finish what we started. Be careful, my love”   And he’s gone. Just as swiftly as Dal.   It is time for an explanation for Rosalia and Bran. I may have to live with no knowledge of my past and future but I want them to know as much as I can tell them. I would not ask someone else to walk into a future they can’t imagine. Once I’ve told them all I know (except for my flashbacks, which are mine and mine alone), I ask if they’ll still accompany me.   Rosalia agrees, as I knew she would.   Bran tells me that when the drumbeat calls, you can only decide whether or not to answer. Once you’ve answered, the drummer decides. He also says that once plucked from the quiver, an arrow does not decide where it flies.   They will not be just arrows in my quiver, I promise myself.   As we leave, I say goodbye to Thalien, my love, and again I glimpse my past:  

Me and Thalien in a garden, surrounded by multicoloured blossoming flowers - blues, yellows, reds. There are marble columns and intricately carved benches, delicate fountains that whisper their own songs. It is one of the most enchanting and elaborate gardens I could imagine. I’m pressing a ring into his hands and saying “You know it can never be. You know that we aren’t meant to share this. You know the prices we both agreed to pay. And you know my love doesn’t require it.” The ring is sized for my fingers, not his. He pulls me close and holds me. I want nothing more than to say something or do something or change something to not have this moment be this moment. I stay silent.

  I wonder what was worth this price. Yet again, what was worth the price of my memories, my family, and the friends (and lover?) who I sacrificed by sending across the mountains? What could I possibly be working towards? Was this my plan?   I craft two rings out of glass to leave at the grave. It feels like a small gesture compared to the heaviness of that memory. It’s a tiny gesture far too late to make a difference, but if Thalien could feel it, I hope he knows that whoever I used to be was someone who loved him very much.  

Day 6

Overnight I have fragmented and disjointed dreams. Again and again I am left with the question why. Why do I have to sacrifice so much? Why must I pay so much? Why does the price only every seem to increase, and will it ever stop? I didn’t ask or expect the world to be fair but why...why couldn’t it be fair just once?   I find myself in tears, and that’s how Rosalia finds me as well. She holds me while I cry. I’m lucky to have found her.   Bran joins us, momentarily. He’s clad in the same sort of elven/human armor and wielding the great-axe from before. He looks like a warrior. I think Thalien would be proud of him, and hopefully proud of me.