AUTHORS NOTES:

With the current climate, I hope I'm providing some entertainment to fill in your increasingly abundant spare time. 3 Stay safe everyone!
My new content speed is not going to increase in the foreseeable future hopefully, as my job is classified as an "essential service", I'm a train driver, and thus am forced out into the scary invisible threat day after day. I still write in my tucker breaks and occasionally before and after work. Once again, stay safe everyone and STAY INSIDE unless absolutely necessary!
Side note: Has anyone picked up that I've been reading Pride and Prejudice lately?

Archer1Eye: Something tells me this won't be the last we'll be seeing of these kobolds…. Mwahahahahaha.

Slyksylva: Awww shucks. *blush*. I find that when I don't stress so much over chapter length I can push them out fairly quickly, it's often when I try to attain what (to me) seems like a decent chapter size ~8k words that things get bogged down. With smaller chapters, when I reach a point that seems good to end it, I just will…. Of course, these short chapters are being edited and combined for my fictionpress and AO3 accounts, and there is quite a bit of a backlog there at the moment. Whoops! I just went over to my other document to see, and found out that the last of (these) chapters that I posted over there was chapter 29! Damn. The reviews from you guys though just keep me working on new stuff :) 3

Drouppi: Sister Tera did not… exactly talk to Sharein about their sexuality, they both knew what they were saying but neither said anything directly :) Kobold intelligence isn't really all that high, they are very primitive. Of course despite the diplomacy, there will likely be a lot of fall-out from the encounters.

Chapter 36

30th Day of Late Winter 768 n.c

I returned the hug in shock, but rapidly realised that it was Mari who had ambushed me.

She released me and took a step back, "Oh Sharein, you won't believe how happy I am to see you up and about! Not just for your health, which is obviously the most important thing, but second only to that is that I have some important news that I've been holding off until you arose! For I knew, without a doubt that you would, no matter what anybody else said. I told them 'No no, Sharein just can't possibly die, not from this, she'll be up and about in no time, just you wait and see!'"

She was definitely excited, that was without a doubt. The way she spoke so quickly with nary a pause for breath meant that it took me a few moments to really sort through all that she said.

"News?" I asked, somehow forgetting everything for a brief moment.

"I'm to be married!" she exclaimed so loudly that everybody in the Inn looked up and judging by their reactions she really had held off telling everyone. She was literally jumping up and down in excitement and despite my lack of energy I forced myself to my feet in order to hug and congratulate her.

"I'm so happy for you!" I said straight into her ear as I held her close and was almost forced to jump along with her.

When we separated, Mari was engulfed by Missus Rose who had arrived in the meantime with our meals. I sat back down rather heavily and took the opportunity to take a sip of ale while Mari was distracted. It did the job of washing away a tendays worth of morning mouth quite admirably.

"Mari," I said, once Missus Rose had departed (with a promise to return with a mug of fine Alderri wine), "what did you mean by 'holding off until I arose'?"

"Well," Mari replied with a gesture towards Malkarov, "Tomas proposed, as much as we can gather, at about the same time you became afflicted. The Wizard's tower was of course, the first place I rushed to but I could not find you. As I left, I crossed paths with the Wizard Malkarov, who informed me of your plight. I came to visit you briefly, at the Church, then returned back to my family. With you in such a state, I could not very well announce publicly until you were hale again, which of course Tomas agreed to. Mind, I could not very well keep it a secret from my Mother, so of course she knows but other than her and Tomas this was the first time such happy news crossed my lips!"

"Dearest Mari, you have no idea how honoured I am to hear such loyalty to our friendship," I confessed, "and I cannot express how exceedingly happy I am for you. I must confess my shock that you were able to keep such happy news contained within, for I would have expected you to be proclaiming such news from the top of Malkarov's tower for all of Easthaven to hear and I do not doubt such an announcement would have been enough to wake me from my slumber!"

Mari let out a little laugh, "Oh but my dearest Sharein, I did in fact attempt such a thing. Every day I visited you, I whispered my news into your ear to see whether it would awake you."

Malkarov chuckled around a mouthful of roasted beef, "So that's why you made me leave my vigil of my apprentice!"

"Verily," Mari said in all seriousness, "for although I had to tell Mother of course..."

"Of course," I agreed.

"... I could not allow another soul to overhear before Sharein," she finished.

Missus Rose returned with a mug of wine which Mari took a sip of immediately after thanking her. Mari's eyes widened in pleasant surprise over the rim of the mug and she followed with another sip straight after.

"And so," she continued, "this very day I arrived at Sister Tera's rooms and she informed me that you had, in fact awoke! I hurried here as fast as I could, for this was where Sister Tera suggested that I might find you."

I smiled at her eagerness and was delighted by her recounting.

"Oh dear me," Mari said, "I should let you get to your meal before it gets cold!"

"Missus Rose!" she attracted the publican's attention, "Do you mind if I return this mug later? I have ever so many people to share my news with!"

Missus Rose gave her assent and Mari bent down to give me a kiss on the cheek by way of goodbye, "I suppose I shall have to let Tomas know that he may tell his family?" She asked as she left.

She paused at the door and turned back to me, "Would you like me to stop in and give your family all the good news on the way home?"

"If you don't mind Mari," I told her, "I would appreciate that greatly. Although I don't know which news they shall be more eager to hear."

She frowned at me in a scandalised manner before realising my joke, "You must be all better then, I shall let them know. Take care of yourself."

"I shall, you too," I replied as she left.

"I must say," Malkarov said as I began on my meal, "with such persistence and loyalty, your friend would have made a good adventurer."

I let out a snort of laughter, "Please, I beg of you, don't bring me here just to make me choke on my food. I can barely imagine such a thing! For as long as I can remember Mari has thought of nothing but getting married and having children."

"That's fair enough," Malkarov conceded, "every day though. She was there every single day. Friends like that are rare indeed."

When Malkarov said that a warm feeling spread through me and I agreed "Yes. She is a rare friend indeed."

We finished our meals and Malkarov arranged for dinner to be delivered to us later. The roast sat heavy in my stomach and the ale sloshed around as I walked. We took it slowly and I leant very heavily upon Malkarov's arm as we made our way back to the tower.

"I daresay that you might appreciate a bath," Malkarov suggested once inside, "I'll help you up to your room and then get into contact with Alladrial. He's come through to visit you twice, at night, but has been eager for good tidings. Elves cope quite differently to humans with magical exhaustion, it's a bit more severe for them and as much as I tried to reassure him, he has been quite worried."

A sudden idea seemed to strike him, "In fact, I wonder whether the nature of their reaction to magical exhaustion prompted the development of longer spell-songs? Something to ponder over."

I thanked Malkarov for the assistance once we had reached my room and started to run the bath. While the bath filled, I got undressed and once it was at a good level I lowered myself into the hot water. I turned the water off a couple of inches from the rim and relaxed into it's warm embrace.

I was startled a moment later when Malkarov called through the door, "Sharein? You know not to attempt any magic for a while, yes?"

"I didn't for certain, but I wasn't about to," I called back, wondering if Alladrial might have said something.

This was confirmed a moment later when Malkarov shouted "I told you she'd know already!" before I heard his bedroom door close.

I shook my head at his behaviour and then realised with dismay that the book I had left near the bath was one written in Elvish.

'Oh poo,' I thought and closed my eyes to sink underneath the water.

I resurfaced, but kept my eyes closed and pushed out a silent message to Shard, letting her know what had happened and that I was now alright in case she had noticed the secession of my nightly prayers.

Instantly I saw her as clear as day standing in front of me in the darkness, one moment she was standing there and the next she was wrapped around me hugging me tightly. My face was full of her glorious black hair and I could feel her smooth cheek pressed against mine. My arms were wrapped around her waist and I suddenly felt whole again, complete, as if since she had been gone I had been missing a vital piece of myself.

"Thank the Mother you're okay!" She cried into my shoulder.

"I'm fine," I whispered back, "very tired but none the worse for wear."

"I had no idea!" Shard whimpered into my hair. I could smell that winter's heart scent that was all her and I could feel her all around me and it just made those feelings of happiness that had been hiding themselves away be released, exploding in a conflagration of emotion.

"I'm so sorry if I worried you, we were attacked by kobolds at the farm and everyone planned to go and find out where they were coming from and Malkarov was teaching me all of these new spells and I may have… sort of… over did it," I explained quickly.

"Kobolds?" she asked, leaning back to look me in the eyes.

"A tribe that lives in a hill in the forest was joined by another tribe and they were running out of food, so they came to our farm to kill one of our cows." I told her.

She whispered with a frown, "Oh poo," and looked up at me guiltily, "that may be my fault. I used to grant them luck in hunts and I set it up for that to continue, but if there are suddenly more of them then they would only be receiving the usual amount and probably getting a bit hungry."

"You're the kobold cave god?" I asked.

"It's a bit complicated," she explained, "Kurtulmak is a child god of Tenebrae's, and when the kobolds started praying to him at my altar I actioned the prayers, took a 'commission' and forwarded the rest on to Kurtulmak. It's not really, completely uncommon. A dark elf might see my altar and interpret it to be belonging to Iiskandiir and I would forward those prayers on to her."

"I've missed you, so, so very much," I said, diverting from the serious talk.

"Me too," she answered and we leant in to share a kiss.

When we broke the kiss, all too soon, Shard told me "I hope to be back sooner than I expected, it has me a little concerned, but Tenebrae seems to be entirely amenable to the idea of you being her chosen. Call on me, should you need me desperately, but otherwise I hope I shall return much sooner than High Summer."

She embraced me again in farewell and faded away even as she kissed me once more.

I opened my eyes regretfully and realised at the same time thankfully that the bath water was still hot. At least I had not fallen asleep and risked drowning!

The exhaustion was still present and as I looked down at myself, I realised with shock that I had appeared in my communication with Shard, completely naked. I wondered how she could possibly find me attractive enough to kiss looking so thin and haggard. If she was going to return in truth before High Summer then I had, at most, four months to put some meat back onto my bones and stop looking like a vagabond. Rationally I knew that I had little to worry about, being fed on Missus Rose's cooking even every second day, I should be looking hale and hearty by the time my love returned.