Chapter one
It began ordinarily enough. Taia shena Pretera'sedrin was born Shin'a'in on the Dhorisha Plains, a member of the Grass-Cat clan, third-born daughter to her mother after Brandi, her oldest sister by five years, and Kiri, her twin – born seven minutes prior. At first, the twin-birth seemed to be the only thing unusual in her situation – well, that and her eyes, a blue so deep they were almost violet instead of the typical Shin'a'in blue. Taia was followed in her family seven years later by yet another daughter, Andrien, which concluded their family. Her father died shortly after Andrien's conception in a border skirmish, while taking some geldings for sale at Kata'shin'a'in, and her mother took it particularly hard. Her grief was expressed in her adoption of the shaman's particularly conservative – even heretical, in contrast to most of the tribes – point of view. Things like the "place" of women, the roles they should or should not be allowed to take in society…the shaman was born of an outlander mother from a conservative land, and had adopted her views. He was attempting to translate them into Shin'a'in culture with alarming success. Particularly with Taia's mother. As for the rest of the clan, they were of the opinion that the clan was there before the arrival of this particular shaman and would be there after he went to the Goddess; so they were of a mind to wait him out.
Taia loved being Shin'a'in; she loved the freedom of the Plains, the community and identity of her people, their traditions and their lifestyle. She loved nothing more than racing her horse across the Plains, the sun on her back, the wind in her face; she loved to hunt, to provide a meal for her family and for herself. She loved it even in the summer, when the air was dry and the sun beat down and the heat was intense; she knew where all the water holes were, where every shade tree – and there weren't many on the Plains – stood. The Shin'a'in were sworn to their Goddess to guard the Plains, and the magical weapons it contained; the Plains themselves did half the work for them, by the simple fact that without this knowledge, most intruders would die of exposure and dehydration long before one of the Clan members ever even got to them. Also, the walls were a sheer cliffdrop down from the outside, and the trails down to the Plains themselves were only known to the Clanspeople. If an intruder was trying to get down those cliffs and were lucky enough to not fall to their death – the Plains were virtually unmarked. A perfect circle, it was difficult to know where a person was going if they didn't know the way; the unending, nearly featureless Plains could be hypnotic and disorienting. In the summer, a person could die of heatstroke; and in the winter, freeze. Taia loved the winters, too; spending evenings around a fire listening to her people sing, working on the weavings, painting new hides for new tents or decoration, she loved all of it.
She loved her weapons-training, as well, and she was quite talented at it. She showed particular talent at swordwork and archery, but could hold her own with any weapon and even hand-to-hand combat; she was something of a prodigy. Her only age-mate who could beat her was, oddly enough, her twin sister Kiri. She found the sword dances they taught as a warm-up and focus exercise to be particularly invigorating – she liked the feel of her muscles as she stretched, the flexibility of her joints and the exercise of her skill. She was small – lightly built, slender, with long wavy hair – jet black, like all Shin'a'in, of course; she didn't look like she could ever be a threat to anyone, and as a child she likely wouldn't be. But as she grew, she liked the idea that anyone threatening herself or her family would have a surprise. She liked knowing that she could contribute to the protection of her land, in the honoring of the promise her people had made to their Star Eyed Goddess.
She enjoyed singing and weaving as well, and while she wasn't considered good at them, she also wasn't considered to be without talent. She was beginning to learn the Shin'a'in art of silversmithing and how to make her own weapons. She had learned how to tan a hide – but it was a smelly process, and while she loved the result she saw no need to jump in to that particular chore, at least not while she could get away with skipping it. Shin'a'in life was all Taia ever wanted – the horses, the weapons training, the hunt – and the Goddess-appointed purpose of defense, without any real likelihood she would ever have to fight in an all-out battle for the Plains themselves, since no army had ever tried to invade. She spent her childhood progressing with her warrior training, riding and training her horse and just enjoying the life of the Clan – until she turned thirteen. Then it all changed.
As any mage or Gifted person in Velgarth could tell you, the onset of a Gift can be somewhat traumatic. When that onset involves several gifts all at once, and powerful ones, that trauma is multiplied. And when it also coincides with an increasingly heretical branch of a Shin'a'in tribe, and to the child of a mother at the heart of that heresy – it can be downright life threatening. Taia was the unfortunate recipient of all of this; she had the Mage Gift, and a particularly powerful one. She also was a powerful Empath, Mindspeaker, Farseer, and had a decent strength gift of Fetching as well as just enough Firestarting to light a candle and Healing enough to keep herself alive until someone with a real Healing Gift arrived. Of course, she didn't know that's what was happening, and the only member of the Clan who would recognize the signs – the shaman, the only member allowed to use magic, and only in the service of the Goddess – was not prepared to admit the truth. So Taia was subjected to the treatment of a Clan who believed her to be possessed, to be insane, or even just faking it.
She felt everything her Clanmembers felt as if it were her own emotion. She heard their thoughts as if they were her own. She saw things in faraway places she couldn't begin to understand, or know what they meant. She started pieces of straw on fire – it was lucky she didn't have a more powerful Firestarting gift, or she might have burned down the tent – and she had all the dishes and the furniture they did have flying around the tent, occasionally at people, which all by itself was terrifying – and not just for her Clansmen. Taia didn't think she was possessed, but she certainly believed it was a possibility; she definitely thought she was going insane. The one thing she was sure of was that she wasn't faking it.
She was confined to bed most days, delirious, in a drenching sweat, trying in vain to keep the thoughts and feelings of her tribe out of her head and often with the contents of her tent flying around in the air, unable to stop or control them. The tribe was terrified of her, and confined her to her own tiny tent, with minimal provisions – considering the possible effects of flying uncontrolled weaponry, this probably wasn't such a bad idea – and delivered food to her three times a day. It was horrible, knowing that the people she loved the most were terrified of her, ashamed of her, and the physical isolation in the tent was depressing. She was used to being around people all the time, and to be suddenly isolated from everyone while at the same time feeling all of their fears, their hate, their ideas of what should be done with her as if they were her own feelings and thoughts was maddening. Her mother, on the rare occasion she entered the tent, called her all kinds of names; she accused her of being a demon one day, of being possessed by evil the next and even of faking her ailment just to get attention or to dishonor her family. Eventually, she disowned Taia, stating that no child of her blood would "behave" in this manner and remain her child. Her younger sister Andrien, being six years old at the time, was kept away from her entirely; even her twin wouldn't set foot in the tent and seemed to be embarrassed by her.
All of this would have been bad enough, except for the growing heresy in the clan. Had she been born to any of the other clans, she would have been not banished, but offered the standard three options for a Shin'a'in born with Mage Gift: be trained as a shaman, have the Gifts blocked by the Tale'edras cousins, or join one of the Tale'edras clans instead, and be trained as a Mage. However, the Grass-cat Clan did not hold with these traditions – or at least, her mother and the shaman did not. They instead branded her possessed, demonic, and banished her to her own tent, to be mocked, ridiculed and ignored until the shaman could convince the tribe that she was worthy of a penalty of permanent banishment – or even death.
Perhaps it was fortunate, then, that Taia was in the possession of that older sister Brandi. Brandi had been banished two years earlier by their mother for the crime of being she'chorne. Again, in any of the other clans, this would not have even been a crime, much less one worthy of banishment; however, in the current climate and under this shaman – well, Brandi left the Cat Clan to join the Wolf Clan of her now-wife, Jacqui. Word of a crazed child among the Pretera'sedrin traveled throughout the Clans when their representatives visited Kata'shin'a'in to trade their horses and other goods. However, as it was not the practice of the Clans for one to interfere with the business of another, the members of the other Clans clucked their tongues but did nothing to help. At least – until the news reached Brandi. When Brandi heard the news of what had befallen her kid sister Taia, she came to her rescue.
After several attempts to convince their mother that following the shaman's direction was not only a bad idea, but cruel – Brandi realized the futility of her quest. No banished daughter was going to change their mother's mind. She further tried to convince the Elders that allowing the shaman to insist on this treatment of one of the Clan children, rather than follow the traditions of their people, was disobedient to the will of the Goddess as well as torture for the child in question; but they were unwilling to go against the will of the shaman.
Brandi was unafraid to enter that solitary tent, trusting in her sister's innate goodness even with her lack of control. Taia was in poor health, having not been fed in quantities or in quality to sustain her with the levels of magic energy she was pouring out uncontrollably. This, however, had been a lack of awareness on the part of the Clan, not a deliberate plan to starve the child. Taia was unable to go outside or exercise in any way physically, so her once-toned muscles lay in waste and she breathed the same stale tent air all day, all night, with no fresh air, no sunlight. Brandi nursed Taia back to physical health while trying continually to convince the clan to see reason; however, failing miserably at the latter, Brandi piled her sister on to her horse and absconded them both to the land of the Tale'edras cousins.
The trip was arduous, even for Shin'a'in who are able to live off the land with ease; Brandi had taken a horse to ride and a horse for supplies for each of them. While Shin'a'in bred horses are better able to live off of simple grass than other varieties, it was no small feat to travel across the Plains and through territories neither had ever seen, without so much as a map to find the Vale of whatever Tale'edras clan was closest. Add to that the additional stress of Taia being mostly comatose in her exhaustion from the attempt to keep the surrounding population's thoughts and feelings out of her head, and they were forced to take the least populated road they could find. This helped Taia to be more conscious at times, but lengthened the trip considerably. During the times Taia was more awake and able, Brandi enlisted her help in hunting, cooking and caring for the horses and even managed to work in some weapons-training. The trip took a little more than a moon before they were spotted by a Tale'edras scout a few miles from the territory of k'Treva clan and guided to the entrance of the Vale. This was where the real adventure would begin.
On entering the Vale, Taia was suddenly hit with the realization that despite being surrounded by people, the only thoughts inside her head were her own. Nothing was flying around the sky – with the exception of the Tale'edras bondbirds that were expected to be there. It was as if a tent full of shouting voices had suddenly been quieted, and the only sounds left in her head were her own thoughts. After so much time with so much "company", she hardly recognized her own "voice" anymore; but she was glad for the silence. And instead of what felt like a storm of other peoples' fear, anger, hatred – she felt only peace, like the sun had come out and the darkness was suddenly gone. The air seemed fresher, the light brighter, the birds more sweetly singing; she had forgotten what it was like to feel normal, to be alone in her head, to not be afraid that the nearest cooking pot would fly into someone's head.
She opened her eyes, surprisingly able to look on people around her without being bombarded by their emotions; she saw trees, taller than any she had ever seen before supporting what looked like strange houses in their branches. She saw twenty or so people, most of them with long white hair and pale blue eyes and outlandishly colored robes, all looking at her. She saw rock-paved trails around the Vale, with flowers and waterfalls, and strange lizard-like people moving hurriedly about. But none of this concerned her; what did concern her, and fill her with joy, was the silence in her head. After a year of never being alone with her own thoughts, of hearing the surrounding village thinking the most vile thoughts against her and the rejection of not only her mother but her twin – she nearly cried with relief. And these people were not afraid of her, either; they were smiling.
"What…..is this place?" she said. "Where am I? How did you know we were coming? And why did the noise in my head stop?"
"Welcome to k'Treva Vale," said the one nearest her. He – she? It was hard to tell, since they all wore similar clothing and had the same long white hair – was wearing a flowing multi-hued robe in blues. "My name is Lightwind k'Treva. Our scouts warned of your arrival; they are experts at watching without being seen. You, my dear, have quite the powerful Mage Gift, as well as a few others we will discuss later. For now, your Gifts have been shielded by the elders of this clan, until you have been trained in how to do so yourself. Have no fear; we will not harm you, cousin. Rest. Recover. When you have done so, we will discuss your options and your choices."
A young girl approached Taia; she appeared to be about Taia's age. Blonde, unlike her white-haired clansmen, with eyes bright green, wearing shades of a darker green. She looked strangely familiar – but how could that be possible? They couldn't possibly have met. Still, a strange sense of recognition – and she was sure she saw echoes in this strange girl's eyes that she recognized Taia, as well.
"My name is Whitestar," the girl said. "You may stay with me in my ekele. I will be your guide and help you adapt to the Vale; I am also attending Mage classes, and so we can go together. You won't feel so alone."
Taia smiled, and she decided not to wonder what this thing called an "ekele" was. She also decided not to worry about these impending classes for her so-called Mage Gift, and simply allowed her horse to be led to – a tree? She was going to live in a tree? A Shin'a'in, who never left the ground save to mount her horse and lived the entirety of life on a plain – necessarily flat ground – was going to live in a tree? She had not seen this coming. She also could not manage to figure out, in her depleted state, what she was supposed to do with the knotted rope this Whitestar person lowered down from the platform she had somehow managed to get to without Taia noticing. She attempted to climb said rope, but lost her footing. She had the embarrassing realization that she was about to fall – a prodigy level Shin'a'in warrior, falling off a rope – felt the sensation of falling – and then was suddenly lying on her back, on the platform she had been attempting to climb up to.
"How…what…huh?!" she managed to say with a great degree of eloquence.
"Fetching is one of my Gifts," said Whitestar. "Although, not one of my stronger ones. It's a good thing you weren't any farther away, I wouldn't have been able to Fetch you up here. The ekele is rather new – the stair has not been built yet."
"Fetching?" Taia's eloquence continued.
"It's a Gift that lets a person move things with their mind," Whitestar said. "You have it, too, and stronger than mine. Have you had things around you inexplicably flying around the room?"
How did she know? Taia was surprised, and it must have shown on her face. Whitestar smiled.
"I thought so. Don't worry, you'll learn to use it quickly, and soon nothing will fly around your head without your permission!"
"What…..other gifts do I have? Or you?" Taia wasn't really sure she wanted to know, but she couldn't help being curious nonetheless.
"Well…..I am something of a prodigy here. Apparently, a long time ago, Vanyel Ashkevron fathered some children for some she'chorne couples here…and I am a descendant of those children. It seems that I have inherited his prodigious complement of Gifts, as well," Whitestar said. "I am in training to become the most powerful Healing Adept the Vales have yet seen, although until my training is complete, I am little more than a novice. Unlike most Healing Adepts, I can also Heal people – not just the rogue magic my people are bonded by the Goddess to do. Plus I have the Mage Gift, like you. And Fetching, as you have just seen, Mindspeech, Farsight, Empathy."
"Wow. That…..sounds like a lot. What does Adept mean?" Taia asked.
"That is a ranking that determines what level of energy a mage can use. Adept is the highest level. You also have the potential to be an Adept, so you will be an Adept-class Mage, and quite a powerful one, as my father said. You also have very powerful Mindspeech, Farsight and Empathy. Your Fetching gift is average-strength, however, and along with a vanishingly small Healing Gift you also possess a bit of Firestarting."
Taia was overwhelmed. "That…sounds like a lot, too."
Whitestar smiled. "It is. But it's nothing to worry about. Get some sleep – this is your pallet over here. When you wake up, we will talk some more, and I will attempt to answer all of your questions. But for now – sleep. You are overwhelmed and exhausted."
Taia walked – carefully, you never knew when one of these tree-houses – apparently, they're called ekeles – were going to fall right out of the tree – over to the pallet Whitestar indicated. She lay down and realized that yes, she was exhausted. And before another coherent thought could enter her head, she fell into a peaceful, dreamless sleep – the likes of which she had not had in over a year, when this Gift thing started.