AUTHORS NOTES:

A whole flood of reviews after that last chapter, I'm so happy!

Veor Hrdenda - Quite often it's easier for new arrivals to tight knit communities to change themselves to fit, rather than hold individualised views. As you can probably guess, by the way Brahdi and her family talk and behave.. They aren't native Easthavians ;) As for sexuality elsewhere, that will be explored and explained further in coming chapters.

Drouppi - My most prolific reviewer! Thanks again! It's a huge shock for her, and people will make more of a deal of it later on… but the opportunity to contrast reactions between outsiders and locals was too much to resist.

Archer1Eye - Thanks so much for the review! I'll try not to be too predictable ;-) Nobody is ever of one mind, but often people will stay quiet so as not to disturb the 'social norms'. Hopefully, I have and will continue to reflect this.

Kar_Vermin - Thank you so much for the kind review! It made me so so happy to read!

Guest - Finally, thank you to the guest reviewer of chapter 16. I hope you get yourself a username so that you can leave signed reviews, and follow so that you don't miss the updates!

Chapter 26

12th Day of Late Winter 768 n.c

After I entered the tower and closed the door behind me I made my way up to the third level, putting the chicken I bought into the cold cupboard and unpacked everything else. Malkarov and Alladrial showed up shortly after I had finished. They ran up the stairs giggling at each other in a manner that reminded me of my two younger sisters playing chase-me around the gardens at home. We all sat down to enjoy the delicious pork pies and mugs of ale.. They were absolutely delicious, the gravy tasted like it had been made with ale and a very interesting spice as well and we were soon all sighing in contentment.

Once we had finished our pies, we sat sipping the remainder of our ale. I still had over half of my mug left, I was intending to save some for cooking with later.

I asked Malkarov, "You've travelled around quite a bit?"

He nodded and said "Yes, I've visited places all around Carn as well as Kaz Sarion."

"You didn't mention the way I was dressed this morning," I stated, "I gathered from a merchant's guard in the Pig and Wheelbarrow that it's not that uncommon in other places?"

"Oh, I'm so sorry Sharein," he said apologetically, "to be honest, I didn't even notice! It does look rather nice on you. Sometimes it's hard to reconcile, for me, how backwards Easthaven is compared to other places. Women who join adventuring companies will often wear trousers and although dresses are definitely the norm for women in larger cities you will often find a few wearing trousers. Why, I used to go adventuring with a warrioress named Marda who claimed that she hadn't worn a dress since she was five!"

"Marda… Ever...frost?" I asked, remembering the name the guard used.

"Why yes!" Malkarov exclaimed happily, "Wherever did you hear about her? Why, I haven't seen her in at least three or four years!"

"The caravan guards at the Pig and Wheelbarrow were talking about her, they told Missus Rose that women could wear trousers and said that they had worked with her guarding a caravan," I explained.

He exclaimed, "She is a very interesting woman, let me tell you. We once saved a town, threatened by kobolds and lizard-men and the town mayor decided to throw a dance to thank us. He threw such a fit that Marda wasn't wearing a dress that she almost, almost agreed to wear one. If he would!"

We all burst out laughing, although Malkarov was obviously remembering the incident it painted such a vivid and amusing picture in my mind that I couldn't help but join in.

Once we had calmed down a little Alladrial spoke up, "Elf maidens of Kaz Sarion will most often, but not always, wear dresses, for that is custom. However, those who join the Sariadaard, the… Forest rangers, will exclusively wear trousers, as that is the uniform of the Sariadaard."

"Let's pack up, before we get started on your lessons today," Malkarov said, "I'd like for you to demonstrate your light spell for Alladrial firstly, then I shall teach you the basics of summoning magic. Finally, before we finish so that you can prepare dinner, I'll ask Alladrial to demonstrate for you some spell song."

I agreed and soon we found ourselves sitting down in the comfortable chairs on the lower floor. I vaguely recalled Malkarov saying that we'd be using the fourth floor to practice and learn magic, but I got the feeling that he valued comfort over practicality.

"All right Sharein," he requested, "please demonstrate your light spell."

I closed my eyes, feeling the now familiar sensations and cast out a ball of black light. Alladrial's eyes widened.

"Even with how you described it," he said to Malkarov, "I did not expect such an interesting manifestation."

"Oh!" Malkarov said, jumping up and moving to the front door, "I forgot to tell you about this!"

Malkarov pressed the rune to dim and turn off the lights, when they did the effect of my seeming became much more obvious. Not only the way things appeared with my special version of light, but also the way all three of us were glowing.

"Incredible," Alladrial whispered, "putting aside the glowing for a moment, the way things appear is similar to the way that I perceive things at night time, in darkness. Except in darkness, I can only see shades of grey, while here I can discern colours."

"You can see in the dark?" I asked, shocked.

"Oh yes," Alladrial replied, "the Sari, the elves, we can all see at night time and in the darkness. Now, as for the glowing, I may have an idea."

"Yes?" Malkarov asked eagerly, "I have one myself, but am interested to hear if they are similar."

"There is a commonality here," Alladrial continued, "we, all three of us, are alive. It would stand to reason that a light spell cast with a negative material seeming should react to life."

Malkarov clapped his hands gleefully and I noticed Alladrial merely shake his head in resignation. My master stood and bent down to pick up something from behind his chair. He held it carefully, with one hand underneath. I couldn't tell immediately what it was, for it was covered with a piece of cloth that Malkarov gripped at its pinnacle with his other hand. He paused for a moment, ensuring that he had our attention, for a moment longer than he intended I'm sure; for I was distracted briefly by Alladrial shaking his head again and letting out a mirthful sigh. Once he had our full attention once more, with a flourish he pulled off the cloth to reveal a small fern in a pot. Just like us, the fern was glowing.

"Very clever Allavaer," Alladrial praised him.

Malkarov preened at the praise, smiling at me in satisfaction.

"Do you have any other observations Alladrial?" Malkarov asked.

Alladrial paused for a moment in thought, "I think that it would be a good idea to give Sharein some blank parchment for her to document her seeming with different spells. Elemental seemings have fairly predictable appearances and secondary effects, but positive and negative have a few effects that they may swing between. Life is commonly associated with Positive and death with Negative, but with those come a whole host of other connotations. Health and illness or disease, Reincarnation and undeath, Light and darkness. Wraiths and spectres are believed to harness the death energy of the negative material plane to attack the living and conversely it is well known that healing spells, being positive material spells, cast by priests onto undead will actually cause damage to them."

"So, I'm going to be an evil necromancer whether I want to be or not?" I asked, slightly worried that my magic was forcing me into something. I wanted to think that I'd always do what was right, regardless of what magic I'd cast but what if the magic changed me?

"Necromancy; despite what the church says, as Alladrial said this morning, does not condone Necromancy in any form and actively destroys the undead wherever they reside. Without their doctrine though, if we look at necromancy in it's individual parts, we can see that it's not quite so black and white. The chicken that you animated this morning, for instance. It behaved somewhat as a chicken would, but do you think that it was actually the chicken partially come back to life?" Malkarov said to me, but answered himself before I could even begin to think of the question, "Most wizards would argue that skeletons and zombies, whilst they contain some form of intelligence, are not the people or animals that they were. Their consciousness as it were, has gone back to wherever it came from when they died. Wraiths and spectres, it could be said also contain some form of intelligence, but often not the whole of the person when they were alive. Often a wraith or spectre contains only the negative emotions that were present at death. Vampires are not necessarily evil, but their actions can be. Killing a person by draining all of their blood is obviously an evil action, but if they were able to drink only a little; what harm has been done? Even liches, although the whole concept seems anathema, are only hurting themselves and not necessarily other people, depending upon the method used. Necromancy is not evil, unless it is used to do evil. Do you understand?"

I nodded, because that made sense to me. I wondered if everything followed this pattern, that basically nothing was inherently good or evil, but it was the outcome or results of actions that were? I voiced this aloud.

"Pretty much," Alladrial replied, "for instance you could say that killing a person is an evil act, yes?"

Alladrial actually waited for me to answer and I was about to agree until I thought about it for a moment, "Usually, but what if someone attacked me and I killed them. Or what if it was an accident?"

Alladrial smiled at me, "Exactly! Even actions that are generally considered to be evil can have situations where the action, while it may not necessarily be called a good action is at the very least not evil."

"Furthermore take a bolt spell," Malkarov said, "It's purpose is to cause damage to a living creature, is it any different whether the damage is by fire or by negative energy?"

I nodded again in understanding, it's all magic basically, no matter how it comes out.

"Excellent!" Malkarov exclaimed, "Now for a quick demonstration Alladrial, if you would be so kind, of the Mage Hand spell?"

"Of course," Alladrial replied, "I shall spell-song the mage hand into being, for that is how we Sari practice magic."

It was beautiful. Words could not adequately describe the way he sang. Not that I had much experience, but the words he sang did not sound like they were elvish at all, in much the way our magical phrases weren't the common tongue. It sounded impossible, the way he sang, with melody and counter-melody both coming from him. For some reason, the song reminded me of the sounds of Shard's forest, a peaceful idyllic and relaxing noise. Even as he sang, I could feel the pull of magic inside of me, almost as if I were the one casting the spell.

When the song finished, I felt the 'explosion' of magic and a glowing opaque hand hovered in front of him. It whizzed across the room to pick out a book from a bookshelf and the spectral hand carried it back over to Alladrial.

"What did you think?" Malkarov asked me.

"That was beautiful," I answered honestly, "but why did the song go for so long? Does the spell take as long to cast with us?"

Alladrial answered my question, "Ah! That is the special benefit of our magic. There are different songs for each spell. There is a standard version that is used with other components to cast the spell normally. We can sing a longer version to substitute for other components, sometimes, or we can also sing the longer versions to use less magical energy. There are some very powerful spells that can exhaust a human wizard, but we can sing the longer version without such worries."

"Could you," I asked, "would you sing the spell again?"

"Of course," he said with a smile before cancelling out the existing spell and beginning the song again.

While he sang, I concentrated on the feeling of the magic inside me. Without even closing my eyes, I concentrated on that feeling and pushed it down my arm and out. Simultaneously our magic 'exploded' and there were two floating, glowing hands in front of us.

Both of them were staring at me. I blushed a little and sank back into the chair.

"Sharein, did you sing that in your head as well?" Malkarov asked me, "Did you copy Alladrial's song?"

"No," I replied, "When he sang, I could feel it inside me and I just… let it out?"

"Incredible," whispered Alladrial.

"Do you think you could cast it again?" Malkarov asked me.

I didn't know. Previously I had run through the magical phrase in my head, at least once. But I didn't know if I could sing in my head? I tried to remember the song, but couldn't, it was too difficult. I tried to recall the feeling of the magic when Alladrial was singing and found that I could, it was slightly different to the feeling when I cast light or manipulate elements. I grasped hold of that feeling inside and felt the magic respond. This I pushed out of my arm and felt the magic coalesce into a floating hand in front of me.

Malkarov and Alladrial were looking at me expectantly.

"I couldn't remember the song, so I just tried to remember the feeling of the magic inside and used that," I confessed.

"That… shouldn't work," Alladrial said, shocked, "it shouldn't happen that fast. More than that, I could understand that even without saying aloud the magical phrase you were at least repeating it in your head. But this is… impossible."

"I can understand your line of thought Alladrial," said Malkarov, "but that doesn't explain casting a light spell without the material components. Material components are a sacrifice of something and as the spell damage ward will attest, without the material components to be sacrificed it is always the body."

"This is true," Alladrial replied, "and as you said earlier, magic is… usually… predictable, so, this appears to be how magic works for Sharein. Different than anybody elses, but such is there difference between your magic and mine."

Malkarov nodded in agreement and both fell silent for a short while in thought. I remembered Shard's words to me in my dream and drew contentment and surety from her reassurances. So? My magic was different, my seeming was different. That's not immediately a bad thing, who else has a goddess as a… a… what were we exactly?

"Sharein?" I heard Malkarov call and I looked straight up to him.

"Where were you?" he asked me, and I looked at him in bewilderment, "that was the fifth time I called your name."

Oh. Whoops. "I was just thinking, sorry."

"That's alright," he said placatingly, "I doubt any other apprentice in the whole history of magic has had as many things to think about right at the start of their studies as you have. I was saying that, as you have successfully cast the mage hands spell, I'll give you a quick description on it's school of magic before you will be excused to prepare dinner. Is that okay?"

Alladrial snickered at that and Malkarov shot him a look, I wasn't entirely sure why but I thought that it might have had something to do with Malkarov almost asking me for permission. It was, to my limited experience at least, an odd way for a master to behave.

"Yes, that would be good," I replied.

"Good, good," Malkarov began, "the mage hands spell is of the Summoning School. The summoning school is all to do with, as the name suggests, summoning things. Now, these things could be magical in nature, like the mage hands spell. The hand that you could see is almost magic in physical form. Or it could be elemental in form, such as the Summon Elemental spell, which allows you to summon a living element, it could also be material in form. Those spells that summon elements, will usually be affected by your seeming. For instance, I can only summon wind elementals with the Summon Elemental spell."

He looked at me with a smile and added, "That will be enough of that for now."

I nodded to him in acknowledgement and headed upstairs to start preparing dinner.

I prepared the stuffing first; cutting up and cooking some onion in a pot with some butter. To that I added some crushed butter nuts that I had found in a cupboard. I stirred it until it had turned golden then ripped apart half of the day-old bread into small pieces, adding them as I went. To this I added the chopped up leaves of thyme, sage and parsley. Finally I added a small amount of honey to the stuffing. Once it had cooked enough in the pot, I took the pot off the flame of the fire and turned to carry it over to the kitchen bench when I jumped in surprise. Alladrial was standing right behind me, looking over my shoulder.

"I didn't even hear you!" I exclaimed, "how long have you been there for?"

He looked at me with a laughing smile, "I apologise, sometimes I forget how dull a human's hearing is. I have been here since you added the kilsmandre."

That was obviously elvish, but I couldn't guess which thing he was referring to, "Kilsmandre?"

"The… nuts," he clarified.

"Oh, the butter nuts," I told him, "I've never mixed this stuffing with the chicken before, but it should be quite nice."

"I have always been interested in human cooking. Unfortunately Malkarov, though he is quite a talented potion maker, is unfortunately lacking in the art of cooking. He is quite a contradiction," he replied with a smile and a musical laugh.

I smiled a little myself, as I pulled out a large cast iron lidded pot from a cupboard. The chicken, I pulled out from the cold cupboard and proceeded to stuff it's cavity with the sticky, nutty breadcrumbs. Once done, I placed the stuffed chicken into the pot and began making the marinade for the chicken, Alladrial watching closely.

I began to describe everything that I was doing, "First I need to crush the mustard seeds, then add some cold ale. Thankfully, I put the remainder of my bottle into the cold cupboard earlier. It has to be cold, mind, otherwise the mustard won't be hot. If you wanted the mustard to keep, you'll need to add vinegar and I like to add honey to it as well, but we will be using it straight away and don't need to add more honey as there will be a lot of honey in the marinade anyway. Honey, salt, butter and one of these hot leaves should round out it out. I'll then paint it all over the chicken."

Once that was done, I peeled and cut up the pumpkin and potatoes, adding them into the pot. I then put the lid onto the pot and put it onto the rack over the fire, using the poker to push the pot down the back of the rack so that it would heat up but not be over direct flame. I then cut up the flowering cabbage into smaller florets and put them into another pot, which I filled with water ready to put over the flame to boil once the chicken was more cooked.

I turned back to ask Alladrial a question about elvish cooking, but was surprised to find that he had left as quietly as he had come.

As the chicken was going to take a while to cook, as well as the vegetables in the pot, I decided to have a quick bath. Once that was done, I dressed again into my trousers and blouse and made my way up to check on the chicken. It was cooking perfectly, just requiring that I flip it (which I did with the help of some mental tongs), I rolled the vegetables around as well. In half the amount of time again, I would put the flowering cabbage over the flame and spoon some of the marinade over the chicken again for the remainder of the cooking time.

Once that was all done, I served up dinner and pushed the bell rune three times to summon Malkarov and Alladrial to dinner.

Even at their first bite they offered such over the top compliments, "This is delicious Sharein!" and "Shush Alladrial, should you speak too loudly then Missus Rose will surely be here to kidnap my apprentice and take her away from me to cook for the King himself!"

I flushed deeply in embarrassment, "There is no need for such praise, it is a simple dish and not worthy of it."

They would not stop however, even after the second bite Malkarov offered, "The first was pure extacy and I did not think I should ever put anything so delicious in my mouth for the rest of my days, but now I find such a lofty record has been overtaken with the second!"

"I tell you surely," I retorted, "I should have put in two hot leaves and a little less salt."

"... and this would have made such perfection even more… perfector?" Malkarov asked and I noticed Alladrial frown and whisper "perfector" to himself.

"It's not as nice as it should be, at least," I said,

"Then I shall be glad you did not, for at least now there is room for me to taste something even more delicious one day," Malkarov declared, "It should be a very dreary life the rest of my days if there were no hope of something even nicer than this bounty before me."

I took another bite myself, wondering if we were somehow eating different meals.

"It reminds me," Malkarov said, then looked up at Alladrial, "Alladrial, does this not remind you of that meal we had at that Inn?"

"We have eaten at many Inns allavaer, you shall have to narrow it down a little," Alladrial replied with a smile as he continued to eat.

Malkarov was obviously trying to think of the location, he gently rapped on the side of his head in frustration at the long forgotten memory, "Aha! I can't remember the name of the Inn but I'm sure it was in that little town Hillwaeholm in Alcarth District near the Allarthian border!"

Alladrial tapped his chin for a moment, "This same combination of hot and sweet? I believe that I do remember the dish, although I wonder if it's the dish you remember or the reason for the celebration?"

"The reason for the…" Malkarov began, then finished in excitement, "The Gem of Azaroth! That was after we returned the Gem of Azaroth wasn't it?"

"Yes allavaer, we had collected our reward and decided to spend some of it in celebration. But I do recall, the flavours of Sharaein's delicious feast are very reminiscent of that celebratory meal," Alladrial said.

"Yes, yes. But not quite as nice as this!" Malkarov declared and I flushed even more.

We finished up our dinner with only a few more compliments and much more blushing and apologies for even the smallest faults I could find. Dishes were done and I followed Malkarov and Alladrial down the stairs.

"The Mink and Shovel Inn!" Malkarov shouted from the second floor landing.

"Yes allavaer, that was the Inn," Alladrial replied and gave his lover a quick kiss on the cheek.

I had a long and luxurious bath that night and even read Floral Reagents In Topical Potions while I was in there. Later, I told Shard about my day before I turned the lights off and went to sleep.