From the darkest of Shadow, a Light is born Chapter 21: Travelling merchants, an inheritance cycle fanfic

Wow, almost forgot to upload because I was caught up in reading another story.

I have recently decided to write a new chapter for the series as a sort of sidestory, which goes a little further into what happened between chapter 8 and 9, and I will be posting it in my new Sidestories story(the old Tale of a Ghost story renamed), so check it out once it comes back from my beta.

Travelling merchants

Loivissa POV
It had been 16 days since they had left Petrøvya, 13 days since Mercury had resumed his memory sessions again, despite Loivissa's objections that it was too early, as he had argued that by beginning then, he would be done about the time they reached Vroengard, and Loivissa and Mercury were currently walking near the Woadark lake in order to cross the Spine.

Loivissa had informed her brother about their new destination almost immediately after leaving Petrøvya and had also had to decline his offer of an escort, as the riders were needed elsewhere and there really was no danger to her mission, which was why it had been entrusted to a novice rider like her.

They had chosen to walk on the path like regular travellers, instead of flying on Adûn and Kilgharrah like they had previously, because the airspace in the Spine was teeming with dragon rider patrols, and since their mission was technically to be kept a secret from everyone but those that already knew of it, it would be hard to explain what a novice rider did in the Spine with a non-rider riding a wild dragon.

Adûn and Kilgharrah had therefore been required to wait in a cave nearby during the day and then catch up with them during the night. It had not been an arrangement that Adûn had liked very much, but it was necessary.

Mercury had resumed sharing what had happened during the Shadow War with Loivissa, despite her not sharing anything further with him, but it was still a very superficial view on what had happened. Not that Loivissa minded that, as her one peak into the not so superficial view of what happened had been more than enough for her to understand that pushing the Black Hand's forces back, or even a stalemate, was quite a bloody and gruesome affair.

So far, Mercury had narrated that when the Black Hand emerged from their little civil war, they had managed to not only kill most of his informers, destroy a good deal of his safe houses, killed two thirds of the upper echelon, but also take out or harass quite a few of the companies that provided the funds for Mercury's operations.

It was not that the war was quite as bloody now as it had been in the start, as both organizations had suffered severe casualties and were now only shadows of their former selves, but that did not mean that there was no blood spilling anymore, far from it.

A major reason behind their reduced sizes was Mercury's extreme aggression and ruthlessness during the Decade of Bloody River. Another was that it had become harder and harder for both parties to find willing candidates to work for them, even inadvertently, as the people of Alagaësia had begun to tire of the constant bloodshed, even the mercenaries and assassins.

It had only been during the last few years of his current memories that Mercury had managed to stabilize the situation and contain the damage to an acceptable level, although from what Loivissa had learned from her teachers, Mercury's version of acceptable was very different from hers.

"So, how does walking suit you?", Loivissa asked her companion in an attempt to just talk about anything, as they had not talked at all for the past four hours, while they trudged along the slightly muddied dirt road. Spring often came with a lot of rain, but it was still Loivissa's favourite time of year.

Mercury gave her a raised eyebrow, as if to say: really? Before he answered in a monotone, almost dull, voice, "I walked quite a lot in the past. Kilgharrah has never been much for letting anyone ride him when it is not strictly necessary".

"Oh!", Loivissa responded, "I just thought that you two- never mind", before the silence once again consumed them, only interrupted by the rhythmic sound of their boots hitting the ground.

The silence only lasted for another few minutes, before Loivissa exclaimed, "it should not always be me that has to initiate a conversation to break this deafening silence!"

"I do not mind the silence", Mercury merely responded, "I spent most of the last century only ever talking to a few individuals, and the only continued one being Kilgharrah, so I hardly notice it".

"Did your parents not teach you anything?", Loivissa snorted, before she realized what she had said.

"No", Mercury merely replied, although a bit firmer than before, "caravan".

"Huh?", Loivissa said confused, before she noticed the increasing dust cloud behind them, "should we avoid them?"

"Too late, they have already spotted us", Mercury responded without breaking stride, "keep going and remember our stories from before", which in turn made Loivissa draw up her hood to conceal her pointed ears, which were visible because she had decided to braid her hair into a ponytail like appearance this morning.

It was not long before the caravan reached them, at which point, Mercury and Loivissa stepped off of the road to let them pass, but to their dismay, the front wagon of the caravan stopped right before them.

The chauffeur of it, a middle-aged man with a big brown beard, loose fitting fur clothes and a slightly round but firm face, said with a firm voice, "what be ye travellers doing here, and alone, during such dangerous times?"

"We are on our way north to Narda", Mercury responded, once again slipping into that character that Loivissa had come to know as the hunter from the north. It was not a complete lie either, they were on their way to Narda…and then a bit further north, before they crossed the ocean to Vroengard.

The middle-aged man huffed thoughtfully at this, while stroking his beard in a thoughtful way and scrutinizing them closely, before he, in a gentler but still firm voice, said, "we are on our way to Teirm and have some extra room if you want to tag along. It is dangerous for travellers to travel alone these days. A shade roams the countryside and the dragon riders can do naught to stop it. I even heard that it managed to raze that warlock's fort up on Eregion. Bloody mess that was, entire village had to be relocated to seek aid with the urgals".

"Aye, my cousin said that you could see the smoke all the way from Daret", Mercury responded, "I suppose that it would be safer for us to travel along with you, but we have no money to give you and only food enough for us two to reach Narda, so we cannot pay you".

"It be alright, you can tell us a few stories or rumours from the south as payment", the man said, before he patted the seat next to him and said, "you can sit here, while ye wife sits with the rest of the women down in the wagon at the rear".

Mercury began to do as the man said, but Loivissa, who was not at all happy with the evolving arrangement, grabbed his arm and whispered into his ear, "what are you doing and why did you not correct him?"

"It would be suspicious to deny him", Mercury whispered back, "and since it will only be another day or two before we reach Teirm, it will not be worth the hassle to argue with them, especially when they are being this friendly. And about the wife thing, you cannot very well be my sister with our very different looks, and we do not actually have to act on their assumption, so it is easier to let them continue in their belief".

Loivissa huffed, but complied and headed for the rear wagon, but she did just manage to hear the wagon-driver ask Mercury if something was wrong, to which Mercury responded that she was just a bit nervous about not fitting in, which in turn made the man laugh lightly and assure Mercury that his wife would make sure that she was comfortable.

What the middle-aged man had said had indeed turned out to be true. The man and his wife, Aaron and Gerda, were the unofficial leaders of their little band of merchants, which travelled from Belatona and all the way to Teirm, before going further up north to Carvahall.

Gerda had made sure that the moment Loivissa hopped into the wagon, she had felt like there was no need at all to worry about appearances, as the wagon was only populated by middle-aged or younger unmarried women.

Loivissa had made sure to keep her hood up, despite the initial inquiries as to why, which she had explained with that she had deformities and wished to hide them, which also quickly made the women drop the subject.

The mood in the wagon had been light and merry for quite a while, almost three hours, although Loivissa had been slightly astounded, and more than a little embarrassed, when the conversation had suddenly steered into relationships and such.

Since everyone in the wagon assumed that Mercury and she was a married couple, they had been quite curious towards how they met, when they fell in love and more importantly it seemed, how Mercury performed his husbandly duties.

Her spluttering and stuttering during these questions had fortunately steered them away from the topic before she actually had to answer anything. Somehow, despite knowing that she really should not think like that, she wished that Mercury fared equally bad in his interactions, but when she had contacted him with her mind earlier, he had only been discussing the finer aspects of tracking an animal with Aaron, and she got the distinct impression that his conversation had never entered such a vulgar mood.

It was not long after that the caravan stopped and started to make camp, which allowed Loivissa to slip out for a few minutes, under the guise of needing to relive herself, in order to contact Adûn and Kilgharrah and tell them that they would have to remain out of sight until they split from the caravan.

When she had returned, the children that had previously been located in some of the middle wagons had come out to play. Loivissa counted at least 16 children, 10 boys and 6 girls of varying age from the cutest five-year old to some almost reaching puberty.

The older ones helped setting up tents or prepare food, while the younger boys duelled with sticks and the girls played hide and seek. It was with a small smile on her face that Loivissa watched a girl with auburn hair count to 100, while the rest scattered to their various hiding spots.

It took Loivissa by surprise when a little girl with red hair and freckles, perhaps no more than six years of age, chose to hide behind her red cloak with the cutest little pleading face that desperately wished for Loivissa not to reveal her hiding spot.

Chuckling lightly at her childish antics, Loivissa quickly promised not to reveal her hiding spot, which made the little girl beam excitedly, before she dug under the cloak. It turned out that the little girl's hiding spot had been the perfect spot for her to hide, as the auburn-haired girl had quickly found everyone but her.

The auburn-haired girl had not had a clue about where the red-haired one had hidden until she had walked past Loivissa, which made the red-haired one under Loivissa's cloak giggle just loud enough for the auburn-haired one to hear and figure out where she had hidden.

When the auburn-haired girl had suddenly lunged towards Loivissa's cloak in an attempt to capture the red-haired one, the red-haired one had tried to escape, but in the struggle to get away, she accidentally managed to make Loivissa's hood fall down, which fully exposed her pointed ears for everyone to see.

A collective gasp could be heard from everyone at the camp, which only served to make Loivissa highly uncomfortable and fidget with her hands.

"You… you are an elf!", a woman shrieked, before, to Loivissa's great surprise, Gerda intervened by stepping in front of her and commanding in a stern voice, "you lot need to get back to setting up camp or we will have to eat raw food and sleep under the stars. I will take care of this matter, so get moving!"

Loivissa shot Gerda a grateful look, which was met with one of suspicion, before she was shooed off towards a secluded area, where Aaron shortly after came with Mercury in tow. Mercury gave a sigh upon seeing her, before he moved to her side, as Gerda moved to her husband's.

"Now, ye have some explaining to do", Aaron started with a stern look, "firstly, why try to deceive us?"

It was Mercury who responded first, which Loivissa was grateful for, as she had never really been much for being under scrutiny, "my companion and I were on our way to Narda, but since elves are so rare in the Empire, aside from the dragon riders, I requested that she hide her heritage in order to not create so much of a fuss everywhere we went".

Aaron gave her a hard look, before he returned his attention to Mercury and asked, "I am guessing that you two are not married either", which both Mercury and Loivissa quickly confirmed with a shake of their head, before he continued, "so…tell me how you really met and why you are headed for Narda".

"We met when she saved my life while I was hunting near Du Weldenvarden", Mercury quickly replied, "I offered her what coin I had, but she refused my offer. When I then asked her if there was not anything that I could do for her, she requested that I show her the land of humans from a human's perspective".

"We started our journey by sailing down the Edda river and then further down the Âz Ragni, before we moved through the dwarven kingdom and emerged on the eastern border of Surda", Loivissa supplied, "since then, we have moved from town to town, slowly making our way north".

"Why would an elf such as you want to see our lands?", Aaron asked suspicious.

"I have never been out of my home before", Loivissa replied, "I was curious as to how the other people lived. Please do not blame my companion, he is but my guide and is only doing this because of the debt he owes me".

Aaron still seemed doubtful, but his worries were waylaid when Gerda tucked at his arm and said, "oh, stop it Aaron. Do you not remember how anxious we were the first time we went outside of our birth town? It is no wonder that the poor girl would not want to draw any more attention to herself than she could when she was in a completely foreign land without others of her kin. But oh my…now I understand why you seemed so perplexed during the ride. Our remarks and notions must have seemed so inappropriate to you, given your…situation".

Mercury gave her an inquisitive look, which made her blush slightly, before Aaron recaptured his attention, "I suppose that I could- I mean, I will allow you to remain with us until we part", he quickly corrected after a death glare from his wife, "in fact, you should have even more interesting stories to tell now that you do not have to hide your identity. Perhaps you could even teach our resident bard a thing or two".

"You have a bard?", Mercury inquired.

"Yes, it is tradition that he performs the night before we enter a new city, so you absolutely must stay another night", Aaron replied, seemingly back into his good mood again.

Shortly after that, Mercury and Loivissa were allowed back into the camp after Aaron and Gerda had explained the situation to the rest of the merchants. The women seemed slightly more wary of Loivissa than before, although the men's reaction to Mercury had been the exact opposite for reasons Loivissa could not guess.

The first person to speak to Loivissa, after her heritage had been revealed, turned out to be the little freckled red-haired girl, who nervously came forward when Loivissa was in the middle of raising a small tent, which they had been giving before the revealing of her heritage, so that they would not sleep under the naked sky, although Mercury had since then decided to make his nest in a tree next to where Loivissa had chosen to put up the tent.

"Excuse me miss…I think that your hair is really pretty, and I was wondering how you made it", the girl nervously said.

Loivissa took one look at her own braided hair, before looking at the girl's, which was quite a bit more unruly but still long enough to reach her upper back, before Loivissa drew a comb and threw the little girl a reassuring smile, while saying, "would you like yours to look the same way as mine or do you have another preference?"

The girl seemed slightly indecisive at first, Loivissa only just managed to wonder whether she had crossed some sort of line, before the girl beamed at her and excitedly said, "I want it just like yours!"

Half an hour later, the little girl ran around camp and showed off her newly combed and braided hair, and the tent had still not been raised. Not long after this, Loivissa found herself near one of the wagons, surrounded by girls of all ages, all of them wanting their hair done, although some wanted it done in a different way than others.

Loivissa thoroughly enjoyed spending time with the children; they seemed so happy and so carefree. Some of the more mature women had even joined their little gathering, which soon made Loivissa feel like everything was the same as it was before her heritage had been revealed.

She could still remember, with a small smile on her lips, how Mercury had stumbled upon their little group, after which he had pinched his nose and smiled slightly while shaking his head, before he had disappeared once again.

"Was that man your husband?", one of the girls squeaked with a giggle, before another joined in, "you arrived together and he is clearly not your relative, so he must be","Oh, how romantic", a third joined in before Loivissa could protest.

"No, no, he is just helping me find my way through the land", Loivissa denied.

"So he is unmarried and available?", one of the younger unmarried women there piped in.

"Well…I do not think that he is married…", Loivissa responded, not at all liking where this was going, "but…I do not think that he is available either. I mean, I do not think that he has someone special right now, but…erhh…it is complicated".

"Well, either he is available or he is not, which is it?", the woman continued.

Why this woman was so interested in Mercury's status, Loivissa had no idea. Well, she supposed that since they did look around the same age and were of the same species, the woman could have some…attraction… to him, but he was NOT the woman's age, he was not even Loivissa's age...but of course this woman did not know that, and Loivissa could not just tell her, but how to deter her somehow else?

Loivissa was unfortunately saved from this by Gerda appearing and saying, "now, now, my beautiful ladies", which made quite a lot of the girls giggle, "it is time for bed, so up you go and say goodnight to the kind lady".

A chorus of "night night, sleep well, see you tomorrow", could be heard, before only Loivissa and Gerda remained. Loivissa initially thought that Gerda would leave as well, but she chose to accompany her towards Loivissa's tent.

"I am sorry for Isabella's behaviour, but she is nearing that age and wants so desperately to marry someone and have children", Gerda said while they walked.

"I understand", Loivissa replied, "I just do not think that it would be wise to focus her efforts on my companion".

"Yes, I think that everyone but her got that idea", Gerda said amused, to which Loivissa merely looked curiously at her, before she explained, "you might as well have been a lioness protecting her kill against prowlers".

"Wha- what?", Loivissa stuttered, "I am not- I mean, I do not consider him my kill- erh, mine, at all".

"Easy there", Gerda said calmingly, "I did not mean to offend, but how else would you explain your travels with him? I know that you say that he is your guide, but from the stories I have heard of the elves, you are far beyond needing the help of us humans. I am sorry for being rude, but what other explanation might there be?"

I have been ordered by the dragon rider council to escort the infamous Mercury Iridium across Alagaësia to find his armoury, so that he can hunt down the shade!, Loivissa shouted mentally, although she only said, "I wanted to know how humans lived, and he has helped me very much in understanding this. Something that I could not have done without his aid, but now I must depart, for I have forgotten to set up the tent that you have so graciously spared me".

Gerda stopped walking and looked Loivissa directly into the eyes, before she said, "I do not judge people as easily as others, and nor do I spread malicious rumours, so you have no need to fear me doing so", and before she left, she said across her shoulder with a wink, "and I do not think that you need to worry about setting up your tent", which made Loivissa look at where she expected her half-raised tent to be, only to find a fully-raised one standing there.

"I noticed that you enjoyed spending time with the children", Mercury remarked from his perch in the tree next to the tent, which made Loivissa jump slightly in surprise, before she responded, "yes, I always liked children. Thanks for setting up the tent by the way".

"I had nothing better to do", Mercury merely shrugged it off, "so, why were you discussing why we are travelling together?"

"It does not matter", Loivissa quickly replied, "it is settled and she will not inquire about it any further".

A silence stretched between them, before Loivissa cautiously said, "so…have you ever thought of having children? Or getting married or whatever you would do?"

"No", Mercury simply replied.

"Why not?", Loivissa inquired, the very idea unfathomable to her. She knew that she wanted to have children someday, she had known since she was a little girl and the urge to get some still lingered in her veins.

"I do not believe that I would make for a good…father figure", Mercury replied.

Not knowing how to change his mind about that, or even why she wanted to, Loivissa merely bade him a goodnight, before she retired for the evening.

They spent the rest of the next day largely the same as the previous one, although there were quite a lot more questions directed at Loivissa about three primary subjects: 1; how do you manage to look so splendid? 2; What is elven society like? And 3; what has happened so far in your journeys?

Loivissa did not mind the first and second subjects, as she was more than fairly familiar with both, but the third subject did make her a little uneasy, as she was not used to having to fabricate a lot of stories and details to others, although it was made easier by her and Mercury using almost the same route in their story as they had really used, so she decided to simply tell the truth…or as much of it as she could without revealing anything too incriminating.

Later during the communal bonfire that had been built for the night event of having the bard perform, Loivissa and Mercury were sharing a log, although there was still a respectable amount of distance between them.

Loivissa had been amazed at the bard's many tales. Some were fun, some sad, some romantic and some heroic, and quite a few of both the romantic and heroic ones were about her parents, which had her blushing slightly upon hearing them.

Suddenly one of the younger men shouted towards the bard, who had just finished his last tale about 'The fair maiden of Du Weldenvarden' "I want to hear 'The Tale of a ghost'!"

"Yes, let us hear that one", more piped in, before the bard finally complied and set the tune.

AN: The melody is 'The dragonborn comes' from Skyrim.
Oh come here, oh come here
and hear the tale
of a ghost

Our story begins
at a time of unrest
our saviour was young
yet a hope he had become