The children of the clan were with Hahren Lareth, listening to the old tales. Yewvhan glanced over intermittently, attention split between Keeper Deshanna and the little girl sitting somewhat apart from the group of young elves clustered around the speaking elder. With her midnight hair caught in two fat little braids, she kept trying to scoot closer to another, slightly older girl whose dark hair was in one thick braid down her back.
When she got too close, Lareth would stop and spit at her to get back in her place. His little one did not need to know how Lareth had tried to get her abandoned to the pack of wolves that had been following the clan when she was born. It was no fault of hers that the same pack had been calling to the moon that night, and her first cries had caused them to stop.
"Yewvhan, da'len, have you heard anything I've said? We leave for the Arlathvhen in six weeks, we must have everything planned before then." Deshanna clucked at him in frustration. Sharp eyes, so dark they appeared black, peered over his shoulder, following his gaze to the hahren and child. "Ah, you're worried about your little one."
"Yes, Keeper. You see how Hahren Lareth treats her. Fen'lath is an intelligent child, she will notice that others who are called Harel'len aren't snarled at and kept on the fringes of their clans. What will she do when we leave the Arlathvhen and she has to leave the community of others marked by the Dread Wolf?"
Deshanna sighed. "You know as well as I, da'len, Lareth has at most two or three winters left with us. Once Falon'Din has guided him to the Beyond, Fen'lath will easily fall into her proper place in the clan."
"Are you sure, Keeper?"
Before the Keeper could speak, Lareth stormed over, dragging a weeping Fen'lath by the arm. "Keeper, your First's spawn will not stop interrupting our lessons with questions! She keeps bothering Mahari as well."
Yewvhan snapped as she stood, "Mahari is her cousin, and the only playmate she has, thanks to you."
"Tel'abelas, she is a creature of Fen'Harel and should have been left to the wolves when she was born!"
"Lareth! Yewvhan! If you must argue, you will not do it in front of Fen'lath! Come, da'len," the Keeper guided the child away from the angry men, "Show me what you've learned from your Papae about controlling fire."
Deshanna smiled and encouraged the girl as she cupped her hands and produced a weak flame that blew out as soon as the early spring breeze puffed through the forest trees. Fen'lath stuck her tongue out in concentration, dark brows pinching together. Another flame sprouted, stronger, flickering in the breeze but staying lit. "Very good, Fen'lath, mir da'len!"
Fen'lath beamed at Deshanna, then her face fell as the breeze carried the sound of Yewvhan and Lareth shouting at each other to them. Tears formed in her wide, Fade-green eyes, and the Keeper spoke quickly, making her tone bright and cheerful, "Now, da'len, what have you learned about lightning?"
Deshanna praised the girl as she was able to make crackles of electricity appear between widespread fingers. Mythal, All-Mother, let the two of them work it out. Until your son Falon'Din takes Lareth, it seems there will be no peace in the clan, and neither of those stubborn donkeys make it easy to obtain in any case.
Lareth was angry that his grandson Shev would be leaving Lavellan at the Arlathvhen. Shev was a good mage, and her Second, but deserved to be a First. By virtue of being Harel'len, and a mage, tradition demanded Fen'lath become First, then Keeper in time. A Keeper protected the clan from Fen'Harel, and since he already had Fen'lath's scent, she was in the best position to protect them, or so the legends said.
Deshanna wished for a moment that the child had not come into magic, as the hostility between the Hahren and her First could have been smoothed over by agreeing that Fen would bond with Shev when she came of age. Thus, the Harel'len would have been able to help the Keeper protect the clan, and the two men would stop snarling like angry hunting hounds every time they came close to each other.
Yewvhan brushed out Fen'lath's hair, the single lamp lit in their aravel the only light as he prepared his daughter for sleep. She was humming to herself, a section from the Sulahn'Mythal. He started clicking his tongue in the rhythm of the part representing the angry Elgar'nan, and she turned her head to smile over her shoulder at him.
Clearing his throat and resuming clicking, he blinked back tears. He could see so much and yet so little of his beloved Tenala in her. The shape of her eyes, the way she smiled, and how she would tilt her head just so when pondering an important question, were her mother through and through. The Fade-green of her eyes, her nose, and freckles were his, as were her raven-black hair and deep caramel skin.
He wondered, if Tenala had not gone missing, would his little Fen'len have a younger sibling by now? It had taken three years from their bonding for their daughter to arrive. In the four years since her disappearance when Fen'len was three, it was possible they would have had another child. As it was, though Keeper gently chided him to find another woman to bond with, Yewvhan focused on his duties as First and his daughter.
He only noticed that Fen'lath had stopped humming when her small voice piped out, "Papae?"
"Yes, Fen'len?" The brush stopped.
"Why is Hahren so mean when I ask questions? Keeper told me I should ask questions." Her voice cracked at the end, and Yewvhan felt his temper flare. He pulled Fen'lath into his lap, hugging her close and murmuring into her hair.
"Nothing is wrong with asking questions, da'len. The hahren is an ill-tempered, mean-spirited old man. There is something he is upset about, and he is taking it out on you. He has been for years."
If the hahren were not so well-connected, with children and grandchildren bonded to many of high status throughout the clans, Yewvhan's assertion that his daughter was touched by the All-Mother, not the Dread Wolf, would have been the tale told. Being a Harel'len was not a curse in the wider view of the clans, in fact it was considered an honored position, but it was a hard one. To be the first known Mythal'len… But there was no room for 'what ifs'.
A Harel'len's life was never truly their own, it was always lived in service to their clan. One who was a mage would always become Keeper, whether they wanted the responsibility or not. Non-mage Harel'len always ended up bonded to a Keeper, First, or Second, and they were not to bond with another of their kind except in extraordinary circumstances. One of the comforts Yewvhan found was that Deshanna would never allow a bonding that Fen'lath truly objected to, though she would have little say in many other areas of her life.
"When we get to the Arlathvhen, we'll find other children like you. You know why you're special, right?"
"Because I'm a mage?" She looked up at him from his lap, eyes wide with curiosity.
"That is one reason, Fen'len. Harel'len are rare, but you were one from birth, which makes you extra special. Being one of the Dread Children also means you can trick the Trickster himself."
"I can?"
"Yes, you can! The Dread Wolf knows your scent already. He is not interested in pursuing scents he already knows from before a person takes their marks as one of the People. If one of the adults who already has their vallaslin is scented by Him, Keepers know a rite that will make the other person smell like you."
"So he'll get bored and do something else, because he knows my scent!"
"Correct!" Yewvhan drew her close, hugging her and turning it into play-wrestling. "How did my little Fen'len get so smart, hmm? You are a gift to the People, never forget that."