by D. W.
His time in Farlan had been less than pleasant most of the time but he had also had good times. He had also made some good and trusting friends. For every hardship he had faced he had also found a line of hope that helped pull him through.
“Not doing so well are we?” Thad heard a voice say from behind him.
Thad turned to find Sae-Thae sitting comfortably behind him on one of his unusual chairs. His face was drawn tight and he looked as if he hadn’t slept in days or more. Seeing the concern on his face Sae-Thae simply gave him a half smile. “I know I must look a mess but the current project I have been working on has taken a large amount of my energy and time. There’s nothing for you to be overly concerned about.”
“I can’t say I’m faring any better at the moment.” Thad said returning the smile.
“I can tell your energy is off balance and much weaker than normal.” Sae-Thae said frowning. “I watched the battle that you had with my mages and the shadow warrior. It was a well fought match. I didn’t realize you had one of the Brotherhood’s weapons. We have a few in the vault but they make poor weapons unless one is fighting a mage.”
“Yes I came across it by accident but have kept it with me so that it couldn’t be used against me again. I have tried to study it in hopes of learning how it works but so far I have learned nothing about it.”
“Ah, yes I spent a few years studying them on and off for my first few years as a master mage in hopes of the same thing. I must admit I failed horribly. I did learn one thing in one misguided experiment. Don’t ever break one by overloading it with magical power. I destroyed a whole wing of the magical academy. The only reason I survived the whole affair was that was quick on my feet. The other three mages who were with me weren’t as lucky.”
Thad leaned forward completely captivated by the older mage. “What happened?”
“We were trying to find out if there was a limit to the amount of magical energy the sword could absorb at once. Four of the strongest master mages had gathered together to see if we threw our collective might at the weapon, if we could destroy it. We threw everything we had at the sword and it broke. That was the start of the trouble. It didn’t simply break and stop working but a massive hole of darkness opened up sucking in everything into an endless abyss. I latched myself to the ground using my magic the other three were too slow and disappeared into the darkness. When the portal closed everything was gone, simply gone. Since that date I have stayed well clear of those swords.”
“I will take your lesson to heart.” Thad said his voice laced with worry. He had tried doing the same thing one time. Thank the gods he had been unsuccessful.
“See that you do. I can understand why you want to keep the weapon near but I would suggest you find a safe place to keep it well away from anything that might damage it. I have never tried to break it normally but after my last experience with the sword I haven’t wanted to try it either. Now for the reason I came to visit. We have learned that you are near the dwarven village in fact I wouldn’t be surprised if you’re already there it’s hard to tell. As you know we are forbidden to kill too many of the dwarves but my fellow Vathari heads are quite enraged at the damage you have done to our forces and are determined to see you dead. If you ever get cornered just yell out the words, ‘Val sur tala reth.’ Once those words are uttered by a human mage our people are required to allow them protected passage to our village.”
“I will keep that in mind. Honestly I would like to see your village one day.” Thad said smiling.
“Now, I have to leave you. You’re starting to roam too far away for me to continue contacting you. So unless you visit this is goodbye my friend. I hope your health returns and you take my offer and visit. It would be nice to have a mage around who wasn’t secretly waiting for me to misstep.”
And with that Sae-Thae was gone. He had only spoken to the mage a few times but he considered him a true friend. He had helped Thad stay alive and sane. He was the only person who he had been able to talk to in the many days in the subterranean world. It had been a short friendship but it was one he would miss dearly.
When Thad’s eyes opened he found himself surrounded by unfamiliar faces speaking to him in deep but soothing tones. He couldn’t understand the words but it didn’t matter he could hear their voices.
He had made it to the dwarven village alive. His body still hurt but the feeling of being cooked alive was gone. Now he only felt as if he had been through a gauntlet of large warriors. He tried to sit up but one of the people surrounding his bed held him down. Thad let out a heavy sigh he had seen that look before back on Joan’s farm when he had pushed himself too far. Letting out a slight laugh Thad gave up and let himself relax.
EPILOGUE
Thad sat up in his bed. He had been in the dwarven village for about ten days and was still confined to his bed. Crusher visited along with Avalanche almost daily. His dwarven friend had also regained his voice. Obviously the dwarven healers were far better than he was and had been able to do what he had been unable to do.
The woman watching him was nothing like what he had read about dwarven women. Like Crusher her face was hair free and while she was slightly blockier than the women that he was used to she was far from ugly. She looked as if she was in middle years though Thad was unsure of that face not knowing much about how dwarves aged. She wore her black hair braided into an interesting pattern. Each day there were slight differences and Thad enjoyed trying to find them. Her eyes were a coal-colored and her voice while a little deeper than most was still light and pleasant to the ears.
He still had trouble understand what was being said to him but he was beginning to pick up on the basics of the language, thanks in a large part to Crusher’s help. The words always felt a little heavy to his tongue but learning it gave him something to do other than stare out the window.
He couldn’t wait to be free of his bed. He could see the sky from his seat but he couldn’t wait to feel the sun on his skin again. He was amazed when he first realized that the dwarves didn’t live underground. All the stories he had heard of them had always painted them as living in caves in the mountains and here he finds that they live on the surface in a fairly large village.
Other than Crusher he was also visited a lot by what he believed was one of the elders or leaders of the village. He wore a long grey beard and looked as if he was well over a hundred years old if Thad was going by human standards. The dwarf had been interested in the Brotherhood sword he carried but with only a limited command of their tongue it was hard to explain how he had acquired it. Other than those few distractions, Thad was left on his own to heal. Sitting back Thad looked wistfully out of the window. He couldn’t wait to once again fell the grass between his toes.
A picture of Sae-Thae flashed into his mind. Looking over at his staff that rested in the corner of the room Thad let out a sigh. “Yes I have been thinking about that, but I don’t think now is the time for it. We have other things to attend to.”
Thad wasn’t sure how the staff had gotten to the room. One morning he awake and it was there. He wasn’t sure if he had called it or it had done it on its own. The staff didn’t even seem to know the answer to that question. Thad was getting tired of mysteries; they just seemed to keep heaping up. His mind weary Thad let himself drift off into a peaceful slumber.