In Between Dragons

By

Ithinkadrianne

Disclaimer: Patricia C. Wrede owns the Enchanted Forest Chronicles. I own Ivis.

Chapter warnings: DRAMA!

Chapter Six: In Which Telemain and Morwen Argue

There wasn't much else that could be done for the evening, so the group broke up after they had finished eating. Ivis provided everyone with a room and a hot bath, so with exhaustion setting in, it was an early night for everyone.

Telemain had spoken with Ivis later that evening about Morwen being the leak that lead their thief to the sword. Ivis told him that it could be possible to extract the residue of the ping from Morwen and research, so he lent the magician his wizard's staff to work with. After he was sure she had settled in for the evening, Telemain went to visit Morwen in her room.

He wasn't surprised when she opened the door instantly when he knocked. However, he was surprised to see the scowl across her face. "Is something wrong?" he asked.

Morwen grabbed him by the collar and pulled him inside, slamming the door behind her. She leaned into his face and practically growled, "you brought us to a wizard?"

Telemain breathed a large sigh and too patiently said, "Morwen…"

"Are you out of your skull? Do you know what this means if he's a traitor?"

"He's not. I was trained by him for four years. I've told you tons of stories about Ivis!"

"You never told me he was a wizard though!" she said finally letting him go and pushing him away.

Telemain lost his patience and snapped back, "because I knew you would've reacted exactly like this! Morwen, if I didn't know better, you're behaving like Brandel!"

They were silent for a long, harsh moment, then Morwen growled lowly, "you take that back."

"Only after you hear me out."

She crossed her arms and waited patiently. Telemain stopped himself from rolling his eyes and took a deep breath to regain his patience. "Upon graduation, I had a great plan of studying until my brains leaked out. I wanted knowledge in abundance. So the first thing I did that summer was travel abroad. I had heard about the Society of Wizards and I became rather fascinated by their mission, as it were. It wasn't until I heard about some of their more unpleasant practices that I shied away from the idea of joining them. This came to pass when I met one of them in a pub in Shiawad and the idiot toasted himself out on malt ale. The good news is the kid told me about Ivis in the first place."

Morwen listened carefully, but took a step back towards her bed, taking a seat with her back to the headboard. "What's Ivis's story with the Society?"

Telemain shook his head. "His family was labeled." He walked over and took a seat on the edge of the bed. He placed his chin in his hand and slouched over in deep thought, exhaustion showing in his voice. "When Ivis was a boy, his father was in Zemenar's inner circle. Word got out that a blacksmith had invented a device that was capable of creating new magic with little effort. Well, to the Society, that's like owning Midas's own hand."

Morwen's heart sank. "What happened?"

"From what Ivis told me, they surrounded the cottage, demanding to know where this blacksmith was. When his father refused to give up anything, they burned it to the ground. His parents and two brothers were wiped out. He only survived by dropping out of a third story window in the back. Broke his ankle, but he limped enough into the woods to watch his home burn to the ground."

She caught her breath and looked away.

"Can you understand why I trust him to not be part of the Society of Wizards?"

"Yes." She sighed a moment. "That's awful. To lose your family and have to watch it…I mean, it was worse enough when my mother passed and there was nothing I could do…but I guess losing her to ailing lungs was small potatoes to watching your entire family burn to death."

"Plus he was an outcast to begin with." He looked up at her and blinked the frustration out of his eyes. "Being a cyclopes isn't exactly easy when you're a child. Or so I imagine."

They fell into silence for a good long moment before Morwen pointed at the staff that was still in Telemain's hand. "What is that for?"

"Oh!" Telemain jumped up, having completely forgotten why he had come to see Morwen in the first place. "I was discussing with Ivis the situation in which we believe you were the link to the wizard to the sword."

"Go on..."

"If you have your ping catcher, we might be able to extract the echo of the spell and bring it to fruition."

"Huh?" Morwen moved to the edge of the bed, confusion was still written on her face.

"We're hoping to see what our thief saw. Maybe it'll give us a clue."

"Oh. Why didn't you say so?"

Morwen got to her feet and pulled the ping catcher from her sleeve. "What do I need to do?" she asked.

"Absolutely nothing besides stand still." Telemain rested the staff against the wall as he took the ping catcher from Morwen. He examined it for a long moment and explained, "What I'm hoping to do, given the absorption properties of the staff, is extract whatever residue of the spell that's still lingering on you, and finally deposit it so it can be viewed in the ping catcher."

"Sounds simple enough."

"Hmm…the question is for as much as I've studied the staffs of wizards, I have never in my life used one." Telemain picked the staff back up in his left hand and held the ping catcher in his right. He was about to start the spell when Morwen snapped in alarm, "wait a moment!"

"Huh?"

She slightly blushed and asked, "what if one of the times the thief was tracking me…what if I was…well, in a bath or something?"

Telemain stopped himself from rolling his eyes. "Then I'll look away. But you know this is more important than that right now."

"Speak for yourself! You didn't have your privacy violated!"

"Then I'll take care not to violate it further. You can trust me Morwen. Now keep still."

Morwen stiffened, but still didn't look happy. Telemain ignored it and closed his eyes. Honestly, he thought to himself. I offer her a solution and she battles the whole thing. Women!

He cleared his frustration and his mind and began to put all of his power into the staff. It was an interesting feeling for sure. Almost as if his fingers were extending beyond their digits and reaching through the staff to the floor. Gradually, he felt the magic pulling towards Morwen and it was almost as if it was sucking at her toes. The magic had definitely gripped onto something of a magical energy and was attempting to pull it back.

Morwen gave a snort and shiver.

"Are you alright?" he asked her, not breaking his concentration.

"I'm fine. It just tingles my toes and my feet are ticklish."

The magic still felt as if it were attached to her feet, but he was having a devil of a time pulling it back. After another moment, he grunted in annoyance and mumbled, "give over already." He snapped the bottom of the staff against the wood floor of the room and finally he felt the magic pull back into the staff, with a little something extra in tow.

"Oh!" Morwen yelped, looking down at her feet. "That was interesting!"

"Are you in pain?"

"No, but it feels almost like dry skin was being picked off of my heels." She shivered again. "Not painful, but not pleasant."

With the magic finally being pulled back into the staff, Telemain took the ping catcher and touched it to the top end. There was an orange spark, and a moment later, it burst into life, giving off a mild blue light. The magic almost buzzed in his right hand.

"Well, it worked," Telemain sighed. He leaned the staff up against the wall once again and carefully cupped the ping catcher in both of his hands. Taking it that she could move once again, Morwen joined him at his side. They exchanged a look for a moment, then he said, "lets see what we can find out, shall we?"

The ping catcher distorted the vision a bit, but they could see what was happening easy enough. The first flash of memory was Morwen working in her back garden. Two cats were sitting in a tree as she held a basket and picked apples from it. The vision shifted, this time showing Morwen as she was sleeping in her bed, tossing and turning from a nightmare.

"I knew it," the living Morwen said at his side, embarrassment in her voice.

"It's alright," he consoled her. "It's not like I haven't seen you have a nightmare before."

"That's not the point."

He decided not to ask her what the point was. Instead, he watched again as the vision shifted. This time, it wasn't Morwen at all. It was one of her cats slinking through the deep woods. "Wait a moment," Telemain mumbled, noting the coloring of the cat's fur. "Is that Aunt Ophelia?"

Morwen gasped and slapped her hand over her mouth. "It is! I sent her to check on the sword last month! Oh, please don't tell me that's how they found out!"

But sure enough, the vision followed the cat as it dodged around a lilac bush, then rested with it's back against a giant red wood. The vision shifted again, this time flying back over trees and fields. Telemain barely had time to register before the ping catcher dimmed back to clear that there was a man cloaked head to toe in black, the only color showing on his body being a malicious grin of gold teeth.

The buzz of magic stopped and left the ping catcher still as it had ever been. Telemain turned to Morwen and handed it back to her. "Well, our robber has gold teeth and is particularly fond of hiding his face. At least we can tell that much."

Morwen, however, was not listening. She seemed to be debating within herself about what to do next. Finally, after a long moment of chewing in her thumb nail, she snapped to herself, "that's torn it."

"Are you alright?" he asked, concerned for her frustrations.

"Yes, but I want to take a precaution. It's your turn to hold still."

Morwen reached into her sleeve and pulled out the small jar she had packed when Telemain had arrived at her house the night earlier. She popped open the lid to reveal a green salve that smelled strongly of mint and cilantro. Curious, Telemain asked, "what is that?"

"You'll see." She took a small about of the salve and rubbed it between her forefingers and thumbs. Then she stepped forward and reached out to Telemain, gently rubbing the mixture into his ear lobes.

"What is this?" he protested, trying to shake away like a small child. "I'm going to smell like an herb garden!"

"Stop fussing. I'm almost done. Then I can see if it works, and then you can go to bed. You're cranky."

"And you're not? I've never heard you snap at me so much in one night!"

"Will you two keep it down? Some of us are trying to sleep!"

The voice came from just over Telemain's shoulder and he jumped in shock, grabbing his heart. It was completely unfamiliar and he had been sure he and Morwen were the only two in her room. The voice was definitely a woman's though, and he peered around the room, searching for it's source. Morwen looked completely undisturbed by it.

"Who said that? Show yourself!" he said, a hint of fear in his voice.

"Calm down Telemain," Morwen said taking a seat. "No one you don't know is in here."

"Then who…"

He trailed off and looked to Morwen's side. Aunt Ophelia had jumped up on the bed and took a moment to curl up next to her. "I swear, I was just dozing off when he came in."

"Sorry Ophelia. We're almost done for the night."

Morwen went to scratch the cat's ears, but Telemain still stood in shock. Morwen looked up at him in amusement and said, "do you understand now?"

He whispered slowly, "I…I can understand your cat."

"Yes," she nodded. "You can understand Ophelia."

The cat's head shot up at once. "Oh Morwen! You didn't!"

Morwen looked to the tortoiseshell and said, "sorry Ophelia, but we may need more than one set of ears to communicate with you on this."

Telemain could hear the cat sigh and growl. "I suppose you're right, but couldn't you have sprung this on me in the morning?" Then Ophelia looked up to Telemain and blinked. "No offense Telemain, but even cats get exhausted every once in a while."

Telemain blinked back at her. "Uh…none taken."

Morwen rose from the bed. "I think that'll be all for the night. Unless you can think of anything else we need to cover?"

Telemain shook himself. "No…I think we're good. I'll just…head back to my room…call it a night…"

Morwen exchanged a look with Ophelia, then helped push him towards the door. "Telemain, it's a basic spell. It shouldn't affect you so much."

"I know, I know," he said opening the door. "It's just…"

"What?"

"I really want to study it!"

Morwen blinked the sleep out of her eyes and nearly shut the door in his face. "Go to bed."

"Right, right. Good night love."

…to be continued…reviews welcome!