Chapter Forty-six

An Ancient Acquaintance


I felt well-rested in the morning. My body no longer ached, but my heart did. I didn't know what I wanted to do that day, other than visit the temple of Bahamut again. I hoped to find some answers and gain some solace there.

Heading down the staircase, there were new doors, and some missing. I was no expert in magic, but I could tell that this tower was filled with it. The rooms seemed to move as needed.

The door to the dining room was still there, but there was now a new door next to it. This room was more of a casual dining room, rather than the formal one we had been in the night before. There was a little kitchen attached to it.

It smelled delightful. Scents of breakfast meats such as bacon and sausage lingered in the air. The table was dotted with different styles of eggs, a wide variety of fruit, and many types of juice.

Allura was already eating, seated next to an exceedingly old man, a human. A staff leaned against the table next to him, notes were scattered all over the table, and a massive book laid in front of him on the other side of his food.

He wore a dark blue robe, similar to the one Allura wore, the blue of the Platinum Dragon. A small stone circled around his head while floating in the air. Maybe most unusual was the fact that he had a hawk perched on his shoulder.

He was crunching on toast while poring over his notes. He glanced at me as I entered, and I nodded my head. I still wasn't much in the mood for talking.

Naidaroe entered shortly after I did. She turned to the wrinkled old man once she was seated. "Uh, hi."

"What?" Evidently the old man was hard of hearing.

"Who are you?" Naidaroe asked, a bit louder.

"Who?"

"Yes, what is your name, kind sir?" I had to hide a smile behind my hand at Naidaroe's difficulty to get the ancient man to understand her.

"Who are you?"

"Uh, I'm Naidaroe. Are you a friend of Allura's?"

Allura smiled as she chewed on her food, then answered for the old man. "Yes, this is Jörgen."

"Jörgen is my name!" her friend affirmed.

Allura chuckled, but slightly bowed at the same time. "He is actually my mentor. However, many years ago he was experimenting with some magic and lost all his memories. And through all the magics we can come up with, we cannot for the life of us restore his memories, or his abilities, to what it used to be. So, he's been working under my tutelage for the last while to restore some of his powers, and hopefully, in time, to restore all of them."

"She says she's smart, but my notes say I'm smarter!" The old man shoved his finger on his papers.

"Yes, yes Jörgen. You are smart." Allura sounded like it was annoying to admit.

"I once was smart..." Jörgen sounded sad.

"But you're also a pain in the butt! You need to get out of here and go— You just need to go! And try to restore some of your memories. The only thing we haven't tried is you actually being out there, using your powers again. And you've been a pain in my side, and my servants' side ever since you came here!"

"But I might get lost!"

"You can be with them," She turned to us, "if you guys will have him. He's in need of help and guidance, though he'll—"

"All these kids?" Jörgen gestured to our entire side of the table.

"Some of them are far older than you are..."

"They don't look very old."

"...though they may not look it." Allura put her hand to her forehead. I could see what she meant about him being a pain, but I kind of liked the old man.

Naidaroe looked at him for a moment. "He's a wizard?"

"A wizard!" the old man shouted.

"Yes, yes, Jörgen," Allura said.

"What's that? I can't hear you!" Ari'yasa said.

Allura shook her head. "He has a hard time remembering, and when he's stressed, his memory tends to go even more. And sometimes things can go awry with his magic."

"Don't get me excited!" The old wizard was now shaking his staff.

"But he is powerful, I will admit. For only having been restudying for the last year, he's really come a long way. More than any student I've ever taught before."

Jörgen looked at Keothi. "I can make you little!"

"Can you make me bigger?" Keothi asked.

"Only if you're nice," Jörgen said with a wink.

"I'm always nice." Keothi's deep voice wasn't convincing of that fact, but I knew it to be true. As long as he wasn't feeling especially mischievous and you were a friend to him. I shuddered to remember him turning on us in our last battle.

"Do you think you could carry me?" Jörgen asked.

"That's easy." Keothi reached over and grabbed the front of his robes. Jörgen put his arms up and his robes came right off. Fortunately, he still had clothing on underneath. His hawk flew onto the back of his chair.

"You've made me all naked!"

Allura rolled her eyes, "You're fine." She looked at Keothi. "Be gentle with him."

"Way to make a man indecent!" Jörgen said, trying to get his robes back on.

"You didn't have to resist. You wanted me to pick you up and carry you," Keothi said.

"I didn't, I put my arms up, you barbarian!" Keothi grabbed him under his arms and picked him up.

"Why are we still trying to pick me up?" The rest of us could no longer contain our laughter. Keothi started gently tossing him into the air, much like a parent would with a small child.

An ethereal hand appeared and poked Keothi in the eye. Keothi didn't catch the wizard this time and he fell to the ground. Ari'yasa tried to stop laughing. "She said to be gentle with him!"

Keothi smiled. "I can see myself having great fun with you, as long as your magic is directed away from me."

Allura laughed despite herself. "He needs to get out. He is a conjuration wizard. As such, he can be of aid in conjuring those things that you might need. From fire, to water, to quite a few other things. He has a lot of unique abilities that, in time, may prove very useful."

Keothi nodded. "I always want magic to be on my side."

Allura bowed. "If you'll have him as we travel forward. I don't necessarily want to leave him here while we travel across the sea."

"Are you trying to get us to babysit him?" Keothi asked.

Allura gave a sheepish smile. "In a way. In time he will prove... He will prove his worth. He was one of the most powerful wizards of his time before the accident. He was trying to mess with time, and aging. Mixing spells that should not have been mixed, and something went awry."

Keothi looked at Jörgen again. "I trust you won't repeat that same mistake."

Things settled down, and we finished our breakfast peacefully. Allura stood. "Well, I have a busy day ahead of myself, with council meetings, et cetera. Talk amongst yourselves and decide when it is best for us to continue our journey, and I will have our ship prepared in that time, whatever time you choose. Obviously, today would not be possible, it will take a day or two to prepare the airship for travel. I'll have to make my captain and crew aware of it, but from there we can move on.

"But for now the tower is yours to explore." She looked at Keothi with a big grin. "If you follow the staircase down further around, there is a basement training room that you may find interesting."

Keothi smiled. "Yes." He turned to me, "That's where I'll be, Tawariell."

I smiled back. "I may join you there." Some simple practice with Gûdtirith I thought might do my heart some good.

"Anything else which you require, talk to my servants and they can attend to you, give you information, possibly, that you need, if you need help finding things. I would be happy to help."

"I'm back!" Jörgen said. He hadn't gone anywhere, he had just been looking forward with a blank stare for some time. "Who are you?"

"Wizard," Keothi said, "would you like to train so I can see what you can do and you can see what I can do?"

"I remember you picked me up..." Jörgen looked at the goliath with a suspicious stare.

"Yes, we're all learning. Apparently we are going to be taking care of you. But I would like to know what you are capable of so that we do not put you into battle unprepared." Keothi was ever the war chief.

Jörgen stared at Keothi for a moment. "Sure."

Allura walked over to Melima. "If you need to get in contact with me while I am in meetings with the council, please just come to the main council hall where you met me the first time, and come in and ask for me. Some of these meetings can get quite dull and boring at times. Though some of them can be heated discussions as well."

"Why don't you just come with us?" Melima asked.

"As a member of the council, I am required to be at the meetings, unless emergencies arise."

"We can come up with an emergency. Goodness, the whole Elven world is at stake."

"Those concerns have come up. Do you have any information or knowledge the council may not know about this? Have you discovered anything in your travels about what's going on?"

"Tawariell would be a fantastic resource to ask about that. I know some, and she knows the other half." Melima turned to me. "Tawariell, would you come with us and share what you know about what is going on?"

I paused, I was in great turmoil. I wanted to visit the temple of Bahamut, and I wanted to train with Keothi and just forget everything for a while, but I also knew that we needed to fulfill our mission to save the elves. Sharing what we knew with the council could be of great importance. "Yes, I can come."

Allura thought for a moment. "Stay here in the tower, we will start the meetings. I know at some point the topic may arise, at which point I'll send a message to Jörgen. He has my other sending stone."

"Are you sure he's the most valuable resource?" Melima asked.

"You'd be surprised at what he can do in a pinch."

"What about with his forgetfulness?"

"Don't test me!" Jörgen said. His hearing couldn't be all that bad.

Allura turned to Jörgen and raised her voice to be sure he could hear. "When I send you a message, send them to the council. Got it?"

"Got it!" Jörgen stuck up his thumb.

"Alright. If he stares off then says 'What? What?' it's probably me, contacting him. Also, the stone in his pocket will glow, and he'll pick it up."