"Mark ye well! Yonder down the western shore below, the mighty ocean breaks upon the foot of the rock, so too will the forces of our enemy break upon the might of Stormveil! Look to your assignments! Rally to your posts! For you are the mighty fingers grasping the war-axe that is this castle!"
The Captain at Arms went on bellowing, longer than usual today, strutting through the defensive lines in the castle yard. Boc raised an eye from time to time to see the daily show, but otherwise kept to his reading, perceptive of his mother's reassuring low hum that always accompanied her needlework. The stack of green and red tabards was high enough to keep Mum busy for several days. The uniforms of the soldiers of Godrick were presented new to each warrior upon enlistment, but from that day forth the only thing keeping the soldiers clothed in the colors of the castle was the needle and thread of Boc's mum, flashing in what seemed like perpetual motion.
Her name was Thanny, and she was the only other Demi-human that Boc had ever known. He had seen glimpses of a few others, but he couldn't quite believe he and they were the same species. They had been caged, screaming wild animals, being transported north, maybe to the capital. Boc remembered their howling, especially when they saw him among the crowd, even though Thanny had instructed him quite clearly he was to stay back in the tent. He wanted to see, and maybe understand a little more about who or what kind of cousins they were. But when he saw them, he wished he had stayed home. Terrifying and savage, there was nothing of himself in those creatures.
"Oh Boc," Thanny said, without looking up from her needlework.
"Yes, Mum?"
"Do you think you could fetch some bread and potatoes from the market?"
"Just bread and potatoes?" Boc said.
"Yes, that's all we need today, we still have plenty of fresh produce from the soldier's garden. And try not to get side-tracked, dear, I need you back here before dark."
"Oh, Ok Mum, I shouldn't be long."
"I know you shouldn't be long, I just don't want you to be long."
"Right, I'll be there and back again, faster than a rabbit."
Boc took a small sack of coins and gave his mum a kiss on the cheek, then out of the tent and into the castle yard. The soldiers were still drilling. In fact they were always drilling for as long as Boc could remember. Always ready for a great battle that never seemed to come. The constant drilling is what employed his mum, as it tended to wear heavily on uniforms. So let's not complain about the drilling, he thought, as he felt the weight of the coins in his slender hand. He passed by the tents of the other soldier's support functions. The cobbler and fletcher both nodded hello to Boc and he waved in return. On the north end of the castle yard there was a short stone staircase up to a crossing causeway. If he had turned left he would have been among the armorers and blacksmiths, but his route took him to the right and past a few butchers of fresh meat and poultry.
Up another short staircase and further on ahead the causeway opened up into a plaza. There were permanent apartments in the stone walls around the perimeter where lesser lords and knights lived, with wooden booths in the middle of the plaza yard for traders and merchants, where the refined mingled and the coin purses jingled. Boc's small size allowed him to dart through the crowd, although he remained mindful that most people wouldn't notice him at all unless they were specifically looking down. He went up another, longer, set of stone steps, through a darker passageway, and finally out into the open again at the top of the steps leading down into the keep yard.
Boc descended the stairs, stealing a quick glance at the keep several hundred yards across the way. A stone walkway continued straight across the yard, all the way to the doors of the great keep. The doors were shut, and as far as Boc knew that were always shut. The lord of the castle, Godrick, was never seen by the common folk. There were stories, of course, but Boc didn't bother with the affairs of a lord, and paid the stories no mind.
The yard was full of people, anywhere there weren't a gravestone there was a person: buying, selling, preaching, or poaching. You have to watch out for yourself here, Boc thought, but he also looked forward to coming, because you never knew what you might see. He didn't stay on the stone path for very long, because he saw the wares of a baker a little ways off to the left, behind the gentleman selling various kinds of pots. Boc didn't recognize the baker, who was heavily engaged in a conversation with a man, going on something about boiled prawns, so Boc looked at what was displayed on the back of the baker's cart.
Seeing what looked to be a perfectly adequate loaf of bread on the lower rung of the display, Boc stood on his toes and reached up with his slender hands, reaching and reaching and getting almost to the loaf of bread, when he heard the baker's voice turn combative, saying, "You there! That's not for you!" The baker swept Boc away with his leg, luckily with less force than he projected with his voice.
Boc managed to keep his footing having been knocked away a few feet. He looked up into the baker's eyes to gauge whether he meant to follow up with more violence. The baker's face projected a kind of mild disgust, as if he were shooing away a gutter rat, but he did not appear bent on furthering any immediate action. Boc was accustomed to this reaction, and so was easily able to keep his composure and say with his most proper voice, "So sorry, Sir, I didn't intend to frighten you. I mean to buy that loaf of bread there from you, but as you can see I can't quite manage the reach. Might I ask your assistance?"
Boc had also seen the kind of look on the bakers face many times in the past. He quite obviously had never met a Demi-human who could talk before, and had jumped to the conclusion that Boc was meaning to take the bread like a beast and run. Now, hearing clear thoughts and words, and even good manners, coming from what he had just now supposed to be a witless animal, the baker was taken aback. Standing there, speechless, the baker saw Boc smile and point toward the loaf of bread in question. He immediately handed Boc the loaf, still without words. Boc said, "Thank you Sir, and that will be . . . ?"
The baker, still in amazement at the intellect of this Demi-human, saw the lad slightly raise a coin purse in his slender hand. The man finally said, "Oh, right, . . . three coppers." Boc paid him the money, thanked him, and turned to leave.
Nearby, Boc also found a farmer selling various produce, and from whom he arranged to buy two medium sized potatoes. With his promise to his Mum that he wouldn't take long, Boc retraced his steps back out of the yard of the keep, up the stairs, through the passageway and the plaza beyond. As he came near the castle yard, he noticed a group of soldiers forming underneath a tree, apparently finished with drilling sessions for the day. Among the soldiers was his friend, Grenliegh, so Boc stopped by to say hello.
"Hello Gren! Was the battle won or lost today?"
Turning to the sound of a familiar voice, Grenliegh gave a sly smile, rubbed his sword arm, and said, "We won! At least I think we won. But you know, if winning hurts this much, I'd hate to ever lose."
Boc replied, "Well Sir, from what I hear, losing is simply no fun at all, and most people try to avoid it altogether."
"Isn't it just so, Boc? I believe you've struck the real truth of the matter. I'll be sure to take your advice and prosper as a happy man does."
Boc stuck up his nose and half-turned away in mock self-deprecation, "I only repeat wisdom as I have heard it, it's not for me to tell a man how to live."
Grenliegh laughed and said, "Well go on then, and come back when you have more overheard wisdom to share."
Boc smiled, and then continued on his way home. Thanny had finished sewing for the day, and was tidying up the tent when Boc returned. "Well done," she said when she saw Boc had the bread and potatoes as requested. A little later, while Thanny was preparing the food, Boc told her about the baker's reaction from earlier. "Is that so?" She replied, without any real question in her voice.
Their conversation continued, as it often did, with Thanny answering questions and telling stories about where she came from. She kept only the most painful details to herself.
Thanny was born to Queen Maggie's tribe, very far to the north and high up on Mount Gelmir, at a place called Hermit Village. The weather was harsh and the land was brutally unforgiving. The village was the highest settlement on a volcano made of towering black rock that seemed more kin to iron than stone. There were no green fields, no streams with fish. No gift or other good thing was ever given by the mountain, subsistence was hard-fought. Treacherous heights sought to betray every lapse of caution, where every step could seem a gamble.
But there was something else that gave good reason to endure that challenging place. Many years ago, the Demi-humans at Hermit Village had been joined by a group of sorcerers from the Raya Lucaria Academy. Perhaps the sorcerers first traveled to the mountain to be closer to the stars, but at Mount Gelmir, they seemed happy to have found a different purpose. The learned spell-men joined the Demi-humans in calling the mountain home, and in return for the hospitality of the Demi-humans, the group of sorcerers passed along whatever knowledge they could to their hosts.
At first, led by the sorcerer Hierodas, the newcomers demonstrated common skills that could be immediately put to use, such as food preparation and preservation techniques. The more time they stayed, however, the lessons included more and more information. The Demi-humans took well to the learnings, eagerly applying them. Before long, rather than living in caves, the Demi-humans and sorcerers together built houses of wood and stone, strong enough to endure the harsh mountain conditions.
These successes provided kindling to the fire of continued progression, but the sorcerers were stymied by their inability to engage in proper communication. The scholars therefore set themselves a goal of teaching the Demi-humans to speak, read, and write. The project was not without set-backs, but in time it too was a success. Most of the Demi-humans living in Hermit Village have some degree of language ability. Some, like Thanny, show an incredible aptitude, while others reach their maximum capabilities at the level of small a human child.
Because of Thanny's great linguistic gift, she was chosen by Queen Maggie to be one of her attendant maids, and eventually became part of the Queen's inner circle of confidants. Once made a part of Queen Maggie's own household, Thanny received the traditional markings of those of Queen Maggie's court, which was a tattoo pattern on her long nose and cheeks, colored cerulean in mimic of the blue magic cast by their sorcerer companions.
Once the sorcerers could engage the tribe and Queen Maggie in speech, they offered another gift of peculiar power: sorcery. Queen Maggie and her counsel, to include several male Demi-human Chieftains, debated this development behind closed doors. Ultimately it was decided that though the gift of sorcery would be accepted, it would forever be limited to Demi-human Queens. It would be forbidden for any other Demi-human to practice sorcery.
And as it came to pass, although the gift of speech is quite common among all the members of Queen Maggie's tribe, in all other tribes it was reserved only for the Queen herself. A Demi-human Queen, before ascending to the position, would undergo a pilgrimage to Hermit Village and live there for a time, learning both speech and sorcery, albeit in relatively rudimentary forms.
Thanny also shared with Boc how and why she came to leave Hermit Village. Her duties kept her close to Queen Maggie's side; mending clothes was one among many chores she undertook. And the Queen had many lessons with Hierodas, learning how to harness and express glintstone magic through a staff. Thanny could not help but have the lessons memorized, so often did the Queen have to repeat them.
Then one day Thanny was walking with a small group of housemaids, and also the sorcerer Ghiontas was with them. They had journeyed to Fort Laiedd, also on Mt. Gelmir, to trade supplies, and were on the return trip to Hermit Village when they were confronted by a group of Putrid Corpses. Ghiontas stepped forward with his staff and cast glintstone shards at the oncoming threat, but the number of Corpses exceeded his pace, and he started to slowly retreat backwards step by step, while still hurling the magical shards at the advancing horde. He would have thus been able to give the party enough time to reach safety, but he stumbled on the uneven volcanic ground. The staff was no longer in his hand, having instinctively thrown the weapon to catch himself on the ground. Ghiontas moved to get back up, but the closing Putrid Corpses were quicker, lunging down upon him and spreading the poison within him unto his demise.
Instinctively, Thanny recovered the staff and faced the Putrid Corpses, who were all now huddled over the body of Ghiontas. As her first ever magical attempt, she channeled all the hours of the Queen's instruction she overheard and fired a suffering barrage of glintstone pebbles at the feeding Corpses. One by one the Putrid Corpses were struck dead. Thus, having saved the remainder of the party, Thanny also was witnessed in startling violation of the tribal law, for although she embodied many royal qualities, a queen she was not.
And so, she was cast out of Queen Maggie's tribe for being a user of magic. Over several years she traveled further and further south. She was unwelcome in any other tribe of Demi-humans because of her taboo verbal skills. Sometimes she could hide it for a time, but inevitably she would be found out; and besides, she could not abide the way of life of the other tribes. Eventually, she arrived to Stormveil castle, pregnant, and soon discovered a way of living that could be tolerated by both her and those among whom she lived. And, as she would say whenever telling Boc the tale, "The rest is history."
"I don't know if I could have done the same, you saving those others. I don't know if I have that kind of . . . well, . . . if I have that within me," Boc said, looking thoughtfully into the candles.
"I didn't know either. The thing is, I still don't." Thanny thought for a moment, then continued in a measured tone, "That thing that happened on the mountain, it's just what I did, that one time. If I was in the same situation again, I'm not sure what I would do, if I'm being honest."
And, with all the tales for the day being told, they each went to their beds and slept in the safety of the walls of Stormveil Castle.