Heir's Legacy

by Vlad ben Avorham

  Finally he broke past the last rise where he could see, and relief almost took him from the saddle. Jayen and Pavel were out throwing orc bodies on a great pyre. Seems they had had some excitement too while he was gone. Zavon clapped him firmly on the shoulder. "Go see your family. I'll go back for the wagons and let them know we're all fine."

  The Long Winter

  Home Life

  The small family now mostly reunited, spent a few very busy weeks unpacking the stores brought in from town, smoking what meat could be hunted before the snow flew, and of course the biggest project, a heated stone soaking tub large enough for family evenings spent relaxing together. It was Ma'Li who thought of it, and did most of the design work, but Echal turned out to have a real knack for carefully sculpting the intricate clay channels that delivered the heat of the fire to the waiting basin of water. Sha then turned the brittle unfired clay into fine marble.

  Soon the snow was high in the passes and they found themselves cut off from the rest of the world. Ma'Li gladly took over the domestic duties and was turning their rather bland staple foods into mouth watering meals. Eventually even winning over the reluctant pint-sized Tzadi with smoked apple tarts.

  Little Sha would disappear off into a workroom she had designated as her space for days on end. Sometimes only coming back to the family long enough to collect a bowl of stew or maybe spend an hour in the evening soaking with them. When asked what she was working on, she would always just smile and say it was a surprise.

  Pavel finding time on his hands, and not being as fond of his days on the forge as his father and younger brother, began to roam the countryside running trap lines and collecting furs.

  Jayen and Echal found contentment in the forge. Echal building tools and other useful if unusual devices. He even built a hand-cranked contraption that Ma'Li used to turn even dried, smoked, old cave bear meat into a tender delight. Jayen was more practical, armor repaired, resized, and refitted New shoes for each of the horses, and new hardware for the wagons.

  Savon and Jan had both taken over the library. She in a comfortable blanket covered chair by the fire, while he had set up three tables and was using one whole wall for some sort of research project. He had little scribbled notes and sketches on that wall, pinned with tiny darts with multi-colored twine spider webbing between them. Only Catrin could make heads or tails of what it represented.

  Catrin alone was restless and feeling a bit trapped. She could help her father for a couple of hours, but then she lost focus and mostly just made enough noise that both he and Jan shooed her out. She found that she could usually trip up Echal, as he was finishing lunch for a couple of hours of entertainment. Even that became predictable by week eleven. She had practiced throwing knives until she had shredded the last of her wooden targets. Attempts to help Ma'Li with the cooking were, um, interesting at best. Even the sleight-of-hand tricks for the amusement of herself and others had gotten to the point of tedium. The trip with Pavel had relieved her need for seeing open sky, but he never extended the invitation again. Perhaps she talked too much? One thing is sure, for Catrin spring couldn't come fast enough.

  Calling a Family Meeting

  Savon broke out in a laugh. Jan was used to him mumbling to himself but only when Catrin was here was he ever this loud, and they had run her off over two hours ago. "You find something?" Jan asked him politely.

  "Oh yeah. I think this may well be worth our investigating. Sorry to disturb your reading but do you think you could round up the crew, while I get this into a presentable form?" Savon looked at her, his eyes dancing with excitement. Jan sighed, with this much excitement she had a bad feeling he would be pulling her out of her nice warm home.

  "Sure, I'll mention it to Ma'Li and she can just arrange for lunch in here. I mean it has to be getting about that time." Jan reluctantly set aside the warm blanket and marked her place in the book and walked away from the warmth of the fire to gather her brood.

  Catrin was easy to find. She was taking care of the horses. "Lunch is in the library today. Seems Savon has found something." Catrin just nodded and continued what she was doing.

  Echal and Jayon were no problem either, they practically lived in the smithy when awake. "Hey you two. Wash up for lunch. We're eating in the library because Savon thinks he's found something." Jayen waved a hammer generally in her direction acknowledging the change of plans. Echal just grunted.

  She left the shop shaking her head; she made a mental note that she might need to send Catrin after them later; they get so wrapped up in their work they tend to forget things like food. Speaking of wrapped up in her work, she decides to skip Sha's workshop. She hates interrupting her because she's never sure when it will ruin hours of work or could be dangerous. She decides to just tell Pavel, he's more familiar with when it is ok to interrupt the Tzadi at work.

  She opens the door to Pavel's room and lets out a screech. There on his bed, on him on his bed a small voice in the back of her mind yells, is a beautiful Elven woman. Sha will be crushed. The next thought was fear. Sha will turn her boy into a newt!

  "MAMMA!" The Elven woman yelled in a panic-stricken voice and instantly was clothed. The long skirts of the formal dress being pushed down as Pavel struggled to free himself of them.

  "Sha?" Jan couldn't believe her eyes. It was her. The lines of the face the eyes, it was the same Rea whose diapers she had changed, but she was looking at a Shadrea that wouldn't exist for another thirty years or more.

  "Yes Mamma, it's me. What are you doing here? Um, I mean you should have knocked." She said getting up off of Pavel as he pulled the blankets in place to cover himself.

  "Sorry, I thought you were in working in your room, and well um.... So sorry. But how is this possible?" Jan was embarrassed but more worried, what had Sha done to age herself so much.

  Sha rolled her eyes and reached for a robe to wrap around herself and then dropped the illusion. Standing in the place of the adult elf is the very frustrated looking child form. "It's an illusion spell. It takes power to maintain so I can't do it all the time but well it's the only way Pavel and I can fully be together, if you must know. I can't believe I'm having this conversation. Momma what's so important, anyway?"

  Jan shook her head. "I'm so sorry, I just had always assumed it was a more platonic..." She took a deep breath and calculated the size difference between the two of them and realized how difficult this must be for them. "Look I just wanted to let you both know that we're having lunch in the library, Savon thinks he's found something." Jan turned to leave but stopped at the door, "Sha? I don't suppose you could put the spell on me some time, as a surprise to your father?"

  "MAMMA! I am so not hearing this." she put her tiny hands up over her ears. Pavel could be heard choking and coughing from the bed.

  "Oh, if you're going to be all grown up girl, you should do it all the way around! I'm sure your father would love to see me once again as I was on our wedding day, not twenty-five hard years after. Even if only for a night." Jan smiled as she left. There leave them to try to wash that image out of their minds. Her smile dimmed for a moment; it would be nice though. Jayen was a good man, and she knew he loved her, but to have him look at her with that raw hunger in his eyes, as he did when they were young...

  New Opportunities

  Savon had cleaned off two of the tables and hastily moved them into position so everyone could eat while he went over his new discovery. Jan was happy she didn't have to send Catrin after Jayen and Echal, though she found it a little less comforting that Pavel and Sha were the last to arrive. She knew in her mind that Sha was an adult woman by any human standard, but seeing the diminutive Elven body always made her seem still a child. She sighed inwardly; this was just something she was going to need to adjust her thinking on. Her children were grown, and now the roles had changed; she was just going to need to come to terms with it. She hesitated for a moment as she thought she would need to break this news slowly to Jayen too.

  Savon stood be
fore them and just grinned for a moment. "I think I've found it." He said simply and waited for their response.

  "Ok, I'll bite." Jayen said with a sigh. "Found what?"

  Savon rubbed his hands over his face, "Ok, first I'm not crazy and I haven't been at the brandy. I've found the Red Spire."

  Everyone looked at him like he had lost his mind, but it was Sha who broke the silence. "Impossible, they destroyed the Red Spire when the human men lost the ability to become Tzadi."

  Savon nodded his head. "Yeah that is what we were told and what I believed as well." He went to the wall and started tracing the time line along the strings he had connected between the points. It was history, or at least as much of it as he could piece together from the books they had brought in this fall. Each line pointed to an account of the time before the breaking of the world, when it was recorded and by whom. "So as you can tell, from this scrap only a little over fifteen hundred years ago, the Tzadi had made it to the Red Spire and imprisoned one of the last male Tzadi there. Then they magically hid it. It's still there, and who knows with what knowledge or treasures but it is hidden from those seeking it. Oh, and it is also firmly in Goblinkin lands." He tossed in that last as if he were saying it was held by unruly apprentices.

  Jayen let out a long whistle, "How sure are you of this, it seems might thin evidence?"

  "Da, but if there is even a chance!" Echal said almost breathlessly.

  "There isn't. I've been all over the Tzadi library and seen nothing of this." Sha stated flatly, then crossed her arms.

  Catrin cleared her throat. "I don't know that, that means much Sha. It has been a long, long time..."

  Pavel spoke slowly, his rumbling voice taking a while to build to the audible. "Mmm... Maybe that was by design. Tzadi love to keep their notes and their records, but if I was her guardian, I would have counselled against it. Especially if I were going to hide something as big and world shaking as this. Perhaps that is why so little remains to go on."

  Ma'Li uncharacteristically found her voice, "Mah'El has informed me that he knows how to reach the place which you seek and how it is hidden. He cannot show it to you but describing how something has been hidden, often leads to how to find it."

  Sha's eyes narrowed and focused on Ma'Li. "Oh, and he's happy because since you're the only one who can help us, he gets a big ol' feeding?"

  Ma'Li lowered her eyes and smiled. "Yes, I am certain he will be most gratified, and of course that will make him a more powerful ally."

  Catrin caught Echal's eye and nodded. Echal grinned and thought to himself, 'like I needed permission', hesitated and thought again of not fighting just to fight and get the anger out, but to build with the sword and bow as much as with the forge and realized Catrin might be a good gauge of which was which. Though as stir crazy as she has been over this winter, perhaps not so much at the moment. Still, he stood up and shook Savon's hand, "Great work. I for one will go check it out. It will still be at least three more weeks before the passes are minimally passable, can you have maps drawn up by then?"

  "You're not going alone," Pavel spoke up, making a decision on his own this time before waiting for his Tzadi. Echal looked over to Sha and saw she noticed that too, but wasn't overly concerned about it.

  Jayen nodded. "I think we should all go. Maybe leave Jan here where it's safe?"

  Jan snorted. "You'll do no such fool thing. Besides its only been safe here because of the snows or have you forgotten the orc raids last fall?"

  Jayen shrugged. "True. Guess we better bring you along then." He grinned at her. She realized she had just committed to going. She had been planning to argue against it. Damn that man he knew her and knew she wouldn't willingly leave this safe spot. He also knew she wouldn't stand for being left behind either. Oh, but he is going to pay for this little trickery later, just you wait and see.

  Sha saw which way the wind was blowing and truth be told if this were real she wouldn't miss it for anything, but she still didn't trust what Mah'El was getting out of this. "Before we go anywhere. Savon, I know you've vouched for Ma'Li and thus for Mah'El, but before we commit any further to this, Mah'El and I need to have a long talk."

  Ma'Li spoke up. "Of course. I am happy to serve."

  Sha just nodded, but in her own mind she thought, we'll see...

  Mah'El

  Ma'Li entered Sha's workshop for the first time. She recognized many of the tools and was impressed with what the young Tzadi had managed to accomplish here with minimal resources. Many a Hedge Witch would have gone green with envy. Mah'El noticed it as well. He was less impressed and more concerned. This wasn't the half-trained Tzadi he had originally classified her as. Hedge Witches by definition lived with a Spirit Consort who both fed on them and granted them their power. Mah'El knew that as such spirits went, he was among the most benign. He liked to view the relationship more symbiotic rather than parasitic as some of the darker spirits preferred. Still, the Tzadi were not known for making such distinctions.

  Sha smiled at Ma'Li. "Come on in and relax. I know you trust Mah'El. I hope you're right to do so. Still, before I put my families' safety in his guidance... He and I need to come to our own understanding."

  Ma'Li looked nervous but only nodded. Sha poured her a cup of tea she had been brewing and picked up a different cup for herself out of Ma'Li's view. She handed the young woman the tea, then took a sip of hers. "This will not hurt you or Mah'El so long as he is what he has seemed to be over the last few months. It will also be a great service to us to relive our doubts." She emphasised that part so Ma'Li would realize this was just a part of serving that she had taken as her calling.

  A few minutes of casual chatter and Ma'Li was sleeping a sound and dreamless sleep. Mah'El knew what was happening and didn't like the twist this was taking. Still if he were to gain their trust as it seemed best for all to do, there wasn't much of a way to stop it. As he was considering these things, he noticed the Tzadi had gone to her workspace. When the first summoning occurred, he resisted. Ok barely resisted, but it was out of instinct, Hedge Witches did poorly once separated from their Spirit Consort. The second summons was stronger but Mah'El went with the summons willingly.

  Over the table was laid in multiple summoning circles, each designed to hold beings much more powerful than Mah'El. He relaxed slightly as this was the first evidence he had that she wasn't a fully trained Tzadi. None of her sisters would have been so paranoid as to prepare all of this, just for him.

  Sha took a deep breath, it was harder pulling him out than she had expected it would be. She used more of her reserves than she would have wished. Still there he was, a large disembodied brain with octopus like tentacles streaming from below the brain area. He floated above the table firmly locked by her summoning circles. They had held for stronger beings that she had questioned before about where her mother had gone. That was far riskier than this but she wasn't about to underestimate the power of a Spirit Consort of the Hedge Witches.

  Her strength returning, she walked around the table examining it from all sides. "I meant what I told Ma'Li, I truly hope you are exactly as you have presented yourself to us. This will allow us to talk without distressing the sleeping Ma'Li. This should also let you know what I can do to you if I have to protect my family. Just be honest with me in all things, and I'll have you back with Ma'Li before the tea wears off and she wakes. I know your kind are psychologically addictive, and to be separated from you, even for so short of a time would be terribly distressing. She will sleep comfortably through this."

  The conversation was short and to the point, and by the end one exhausted Shadrea of the Mists released one very anxious and mildly paranoid Mah'El back to the relative safety of Ma'Li.

  Sha switched out Ma'Li's now cooling tea with another hot cup from the same pot her own came from and sat it next to her. When Ma'Li woke, they had another few minute chat about comfortable topics and the ordeal was over. Mah'El would only tell Ma'Li that if they ever suspected him of not working
in their best interests that they would have to run or be separated forever. As much as Ma'Li had come to love her new family and the tender kindness of Savon, she knew she would choose her Spirit Consort above all others.

  Nomads Again

  Leaving Home

  Jan knew it shouldn't feel like she was leaving home again, after all her whole family was coming with her, but still it did. Leaving behind the library and the memories. Not to mention the comfort, the wagons, and a goodly portion of their material wealth. It was impractical to carry it all and should something happen; it was important; the survivors have a cache to rebuild their lives. Savon and Jayen had been arguing how best to secure it when Echal surprised everyone with the simplest solution. Ok simple if you have a Tzadi in the family that is.

  They cut logs and leaned them up against the mountain. They wove smaller branches in between the larger logs and coated it with a clay daub just as if they were building a village cottage. Then Echal spent a couple of hours carefully contouring the clay to look like the surrounding rock. It wasn't horribly convincing but Echal seemed to think it would work just fine. They spent their last night in the comforts of home.