Chapter 2: Yule in Spring. An Abnormally Hot Yule.
Tas blinked in the bright mid-spring sunshine. "It worked!" he proclaimed. A few passing women gave cast an odd look at him, then realized who he was and smiled. It was good to be a hero.
Tas rushed up the stairs to the Inn of the Last Home. He pushed the door open- but it was locked. It was only then that he noticed the sign in the window reading "Closed for Yule".
Before he had even thought about it, he had picked the lock and was inside. He had never seen the Inn this empty! The fire in the grate was dark, and there was dust everywhere.
"Hello?" Tas called into the dark. "Caramon? Tika? Is anyone there?"
No one answered. Tas missed the smell of fried potatoes.
They're probably at their house! he thought in a burst of genius. He dashed out of the Inn, neglecting to close the door, and nearly tumbled down the stairs to reach ground level.
Sure enough, the Majeres' house was lit up. When Tas knocked politely on the door- a habit he had been forced to adopt after years of living among humans- it swung open to reveal a smiling Tika.
"Tas!" she exclaimed. "I heard you were in town and knew it wouldn't be long before you came to visit! Come in, come in."
Tas, of course, was already in and looking around. The remains of a ham sat on the table, with Caramon absentmindedly picking at bits.
"Hi, Caramon!" Tas said excitedly. "Isn't Yule great?"
Caramon cracked a grin. "I've never eaten this much ham in my entire life! Yule is wonderful!"
Tika shook her head. "You didn't happen to stop by the Inn first, did you, Tas?" she asked. When Tas nodded, she sighed. "I'll go over and lock it back up, then," she said, and slipped out the door.
"So Tas," Caramon began after a hearty belch, "what brings you to Solace at Yuletide? I thought you were staying home for the holidays."
"Oo, Caramon, it's such an exciting story! Even better than one Uncle Trapspringer would have told! You see, I was waiting up on the night before Yule- not sleeping, of course- and I heard a noise, and when I looked up I saw Fizban! You remember Fizban, the wizard who's actually Paladine? Close personal friends, me and Paladine. Well, he couldn't deliver presents because his hat was missing, so I helped him find it, and I saved Yule, Caramon! Me! All by myself!"
Caramon scratched his head. "But how did you get here?"
Tas took a deep breath and continued to tell the rest of the story so quickly that Caramon only looked more confused than he had at first. It didn't help that Tas' story was punctuated with tales of his Uncle Trapspringer and fond memories of the War of the Lance.
"Okay," Caramon said finally. "Tell me again, but slower…"
Despite the warmth of the afternoon, a fire blazed in the grate. Dalamar wiped sweat from his forehead as he poured yet another cup of tea for his irritable Shalafi.
Raistlin sat in the armchair from which he had hardly moved since the original Yule. He stared at the fire. Dalamar wondered what he was thinking and what he was seeing. Dying embers couldn't look that interesting, could they?
As he set the teacup on the small table next to Raistlin's chair, his Shalafi spoke.
"Do you know what I've accomplished?"
"Yes, Shalafi. You are the greatest mage alive," Dalamar replied. It wasn't flattery, it was common knowledge.
"I was the youngest mage ever to take the Test, let alone survive it," his master continued. "I reclaimed this tower from the curse it had been placed under. I created life, however pathetic, in my laboratory." He succumbed momentarily to a coughing fit and began again only after a few sips of tea.
"Yes, Shalafi," Dalamar repeated.
"Every night, for four months, I have wished for a Demon-in-a-Ball so I could reverse that fool kender's wish. Every morning I have been disappointed. I could be refining the process of reanimation in my laboratory. I could be a god by now! But it's Yule. So I can't do anything."
Dalamar didn't speak. It was best to remain silent when Raistlin monologued.
"Get out of my sight," Raistlin hissed, and went back to staring at the flames.
Dalamar slipped out unnoticed.
"Anyway," Tas concluded after explaining himself again to his friends, "I'm not supposed to stay very long. I've gotta see what Yule's like in summer! Don't you think it'll be wonderful, with all the heat? But there won't be any snow. Do you think it will be less of a Yule if there's no snow? I suppose not, I mean, there's no snow now and it's still a happy Yule-"
"Tas," Tika interrupted, "weren't you going?"
"Oh, yes, of course, thank you Tika! It's been marvelous seeing you all! I suppose I'll see you again in the summer! Happy Yule!"
He would have continued this conversation had not Caramon coughed significantly, which reminded Tas again that he was leaving.
A whispered incantation and a few spins of the Device of Time Journeying, and Tas found himself back in the middle of Kenderhome.
But it wasn't the Kenderhome he knew. No happy children dashed around with buckets of water, splashing their friends. No laughter rang through the hot, still air. The market wasn't even set up!
In fact, Kenderhome looked much like other scenes Tas had seen before, during the War of the Lance. It looked like a war zone.
"What happened here?" he gasped.
A voice from behind him answered. "An entire population of kender got bored."
Dalamar wandered the streets of Palanthas, cursing the order of magic that forced him to wear black velvet in the middle of summer. He was most unattractively flushed and sweaty, and the burning sensation on his nose told him it would be sunburned the next day.
"You know what I'm looking for," Raistlin had told him this morning in the Tower of High Sorcery. "Go find it for me."
When Dalamar had tried to question his Shalafi further, he'd only been dismissed. Unfortunately, Dalamar had no idea what Raistlin was looking for, and therefore had been outdoors for hours, trying to find something that might please his extremely peevish master.
He tried to think. What did he want? Perhaps if he started there, he could solve this mystery. However, Raistlin didn't seem the type for cologne or silver-handled combs.
A figure on the other side of the street caught Dalamar's eye. A woman. And a rather pretty one- well, passing pretty anyway- at that. And- Dalamar noticed with growing excitement- she was a cleric of Paladine! That immediately triggered a memory in Dalamar's head, a memory of Raistlin saying that to become a god, a mage needed a cleric of the opposite persuasion…
Without hesitation Dalamar dashed across the street. He wasn't one to doubt fate when its message was so clear.
"Excuse me! Ma'am! Excuse me!" Dalamar called as he tried to catch up to the woman. He wasn't used to such physical exertion.
She turned around. "Happy Yule," she said with a smile. "Do you need my help with anything?"
Dalamar kept his smirk to himself. Only a cleric of Paladine would still appreciate Yule by this time.
"Yes, my master is in need of your…" he trailed off, unsure of how to phrase his request, "…special skills. Would you come with me to his tower?"
The cleric flushed. "I'm afraid I'm not the sort of woman you seem to think I am," she said, offended.
This made Dalamar blush. "Oh, no, nothing like that, ma'am, I assure you. My Shalafi needs a cleric to help him with a task, that's all."
The woman's face broke into a smile again. "Lead on," she said, gesturing ahead of her.
Tas turned to look at the voice. A dwarf peddler stood behind him, spinning a golden bracelet on his finger.
"What do you mean, 'got bored'?" Tas asked. "It's Yule. Kender love Yule."
The dwarf let out a harsh laugh. "Not when it's every day, they don't. Kender like exciting, new things. Yule was no longer new or exciting, and therefore it bored them. You're a kender. You should know."
Tas scratched his topknot. "Why didn't they stop celebrating, then?" he asked.
"It's Yule. You can't not celebrate Yule," the dwarf replied matter-of-factly.
Tas looked down the street at the burning house and broken crockery. He let out a sigh.
"Maybe I should ask a kender what's going on," he said to himself. He waved cheerily at the dwarf and proceeded to search for some sign of life.
He had nearly reached his house when he caught sight of a girl he recognized as his cousin Goldilocks.
"Goldie!" he called. "Hey, Goldie!"
She turned. Her face was dirty, her hair tangled.
"Hi, Tas," she said tiredly.
"What's going on here?" he asked.
"Oh, you wouldn't know. You haven't been here. But about three months ago, wanderlust struck every kender here. But no one could leave, because it's Yule, and everyone has to be with their families. So we just…broke stuff, I guess."
"So you don't like Yule every day?" Tas asked. He was beginning to think that perhaps his wish hadn't been such a good idea after all.
"It's fine, I guess. I'm just tired of only getting presents and the grownups all being angry because they can't go anywhere."
Tas sighed. Clearly his wish had not been a good one. But maybe…
"If it was actually Yuletide, do you think you would like Yule?" he asked Goldie.
"I don't know. It's hard to know how I'll feel tonight, much less in winter," she replied.
"I'll find out for you! Don't worry, Goldie! I'll see you at Yuletide!"
Tas whisked out the Device of Time Journeying and disappeared only moments later.
Raistlin glanced up when he heard the door opened. It appeared that apprentice of his had returned. He hoped the elf had been successful, for his own sake.
"Shalafi," Dalamar called, "I've brought you a cleric…" he trailed off as he realized he hadn't asked the woman's name.
"Crysania," she supplied. "I'm pleased to be of service, Master Shalafi."
Raistlin turned to look at the pair. Dalamar looked sunburned and quite disconcerted, while the cleric- Crysania, he reminded himself- looked serene, if a bit pale from crossing the Shoikan Grove.
"I am pleased you could attend to me," he said. "I am Raistlin Majere."
She flushed slightly. "When he called you Shalafi, I assumed it was your name," she said apologetically.
"Don't worry about it. You are here to help me with a most important task."
Raistlin nodded at Dalamar to dismiss him. He waited until the door clicked shut behind the elf to continue.
"You see," he said, "I plan on stopping Yule. This Yule every day is nonsense! We should abolish the holiday and get it over with."
Crysania looked distinctly uncomfortable. "Yule is a holiday sacred to Paladine," she said. "I cannot support your overthrow of it."
Raistlin bit his lip. He'd have to try a different tactic.
"But look at what this sacred holiday is reduced to," he said, inspired. "It's nothing more than an everyday occurrence, like breakfast. It doesn't have sanctity anymore."
She frowned. "I don't believe that. I hold it sacred. If I hadn't believed this to be some emergency, I wouldn't have come. I would have returned to the temple to worship."
Raistlin resisted the urge to roll his eyes. "But no one's happy anymore," he protested. "Isn't Yule about spending happy times with family and friends? By now, everyone's tired of their family and friends. They're not even celebrating the true meaning of Yule."
"I can't believe that," Crysania said. "I have seen more goodness in the past several months than I have in my lifetime. Yule every day has worked wonders for society."
Raistlin took her hands. "If you won't believe me, I'll show you," he said.
And he did. He showed her husbands and wives fighting, bored children, grandparents thrown out of their children's homes to spend their nights in hotels.
"This is what Yule every day does," he told her. "Some of these people live just outside your temple. And none of them are happy or loving."
Tears sparkled in Crysania's eyes. "How could I have been so blind?" she murmured. "All this anger and strife, right here in Palanthas. This must be stopped."
Raistlin's lips curled into a cruel smile. "Come to my laboratory," he said. "We have much to do."
Sorry about this ridiculosity. I suppose I was just busy last Christmas, so I never got this finished.
Anyway, I should have the next chapter up by/shortly after Christmas.
Leave a review!
~~Mazzie~~