AUTHORS NOTE:
Havok22 - Malkarov served a term in the war-wizards, but there is a reason he is being called back.
Slyksylva - Ominously awesome? ;-)
Archer1eye - Would it help if I told you that the REALLY bad stuff isn't going to happen until after Castlemere? Or is that just going to make you worry about what the 'regular' bad stuff will be? ;-) No, Mari and Shard haven't met…. Yet. Elvish wizards teaching a human, human magic wouldn't work very well and I don't think Sharein's singing voice is good enough for elvish magic… but who knows? Thanks so SO much for the praise as well, it's always been a plot point (since I played Sharein in an online game oh so long ago), but wanted it to be realistic and inoffensive, despite it being only a 'token' tendays worth. Chapter 59
19th Day of Middle Spring 768 n.c
I heard thundering feet and Kara's shout, "Sharein! Where are you off to? Is it Castlemere? Please say it's Castlemere!"
I must have looked very disappointed for Shard gave me a hug and a kiss on the cheek.
"How?" I whispered.
Illith gave me a surprise when her voice chimed up from right next to me, "Sister Terra told us all about Castlemere last tenday, Kara's been going on about nothing else since then."
That explained it. Kara would often get fixated on Sister Terra's teachings if she focussed on something. It wasn't that long ago when Sister Terra did an entire lesson on the Dwarves of the Irongap Mountains; Kara spent the entire tenday pretending to be a dwarf. She wasn't even deterred when Mother informed her that dwarf women had beards, making a makeshift beard out of drygrass stalks.
"You're going to Castlemere?" I heard Mother's voice ask from in front of me, then a hug and a kiss on the cheek.
"Yes," I answered, "Malkarov has been requested to present himself to the Chief War Wizard."
"Orcs are on the move again?" Mother asked, though it sounded like a rhetorical question.
"It sounds like it," I said anyway, "and Malkarov promised to take me to the Mages Guild while we're there."
"I dare say," Mother said, "that it shall be the first of many visits."
"Come in Sharein," Mother continued, "come in Shard. Did Sharein visit you before coming here?"
"Oh no," Shard said innocently, "I've been visiting her."
I spun around all wide eyed and fearful.
"This morning?" Mother asked.
"This morning," Shard agreed and I was about to breathe a sigh of relief when she continued, "and last night and yesterday morning.. Every night and morning really. I've been visiting her every night for dinner and leaving after breakfast so that she can have her lessons without distraction."
"Really?" Mother asked.
I felt like I just wanted to hide away somewhere, crawl under the blankets on my bed and never come out.
"Oh yes," Shard said, "Alladrial said that I was a big enough distraction of a night time and that's the reason Malkarov is going to make ward Sharein's door against sound."
Just when I thought that it couldn't possibly get worse, she elaborated, "because the noises we make are distracting."
Mother coughed in an odd sort of way, before saying, "girls, can you help Sharein get into the kitchen? I'm just going to have a talk with Shard for a couple of minutes."
"Of course Mother," Illith said before gently guiding me around something on the floor to the kitchen. I assumed that there was something on the floor, although it could have just been Illith having some fun guiding me around nothing.
"Sharien?" Kara asked on the way.
"Yes Kara?" I prompted.
"Do you and Shard stay up all night talking and playing games?" She asked, "Is that why you make so much noise?"
I almost giggled at her naivety, "yes Kara. That's exactly it."
"Do you think that you'll see knights?" Kara asked.
"What?" I asked, confused as to how knights would play a part in 'our games'.
"In Castlemere? Do you think that you'll see knights?" She asked rapidly, "what about the Princess, do you think that you'll meet the Princess?"
"Ah," I replied, "well, I suppose that we might see knights. Malkarov will be meeting with the Chief War Wizard, so we might see some. The Princess though, I doubt that very much."
Kara made a disappointed sounding noise but then said brightly, "maybe one of the Knights will court you and you could give him your favour?"
I smiled at her again, "I think that Shard may have something to say about that."
"Would she get jealous?" Kara asked and for a moment I thought that she was on the right track, "I'm sure she could find a Knight of her own."
I let out a little laugh and heard Illith let out a little sigh, "I meant that Shard and I are both happy with each other. The things that a lady and a knight would be together are just us together."
"So, which of you is the lady and which is the knight?" She asked innocently.
I giggled again, my mind going back to the past few nights, "well, we sort of take turns."
Illith made a strange snorting noise that turned into a coughing fit. I reached over and patted her on the back until it finished.
"Are you all right Illith?" I asked with concern.
"Yes yes," she affirmed quickly and evasively explained, "I was just thinking about something else."
"About Knights… And Princesses?" I asked.
"Yes," she said dryly and I reached across to give her a hug and a kiss on the forehead, whispering into her ear, "who knows? Maybe you'll find a knight and a princess, but you may have to search for them."
"I'd be happy with one or the other," she whispered back shyly, "but the idea of both does sound a bit exciting."
I knew that admission was a big show of trust, so I gave her an extra squeeze in acknowledgement before I let her go.
"I wish I was a Princess," Kara said cheerfully, "and then I could find a nice Knight to give my favour to and he would go off to war for me."
I smiled as I told her, "that sounds like a nice story. What would happen then?"
"Oh," she said lightly, "he'd probably get killed in the war and I'd marry a Prince."
'What?' I thought at the same time as Illith actually said it aloud, "What?"
"What?" Kara said in return, plainly confused.
"What do you mean he'd get killed in the war and you'd marry a Prince?" Illith asked.
Kara sounded confused, "but isn't that what happens? Princesses have to marry Princes, but they are always giving their favours to Knights?"
I was dumbfounded, but I patted Illith's hand, in an attempt to suggest that she not question it. She followed my unspoken advice and we were joined after a short while by Mother and Shard.
We all talked about the things that I had learned and Malkarov's obsessive enchanting projects. The girls were especially interested in the Elvish dinner that Alladrial had prepared for us and Shard explained proudly how she had prepared breakfast every morning under my direction. Eventually Mother called the girl over to help prepare lunch and Shard pushed my chair across with me in it so that she could sit on my lap.
"I'm sorry," she whispered to me.
"For what?" I asked, "there's nothing for..." I was interrupted by something pushed against my lips, I assumed that it was Shard's finger for it was quickly followed by a whispered, "shhhhh."
"Your Mother explained to me that one does not discuss the things that we do in the privacy of our bedroom with other people," she whispered, "just like she would not discuss her and your Father having sex last night with anyone else."
"What?!" I screamed and idly noted that all sound in the kitchen stopped immediately. I would need all the lye in the world to scrub that from my memory.
"Oh," Shard whispered, then said louder, "I think I understand now!"
"Good good dear," Mother returned patiently.
"I'm sorry," Shard whispered again, "I'm sorry again. Please love, you must tell me when I am saying or doing something that embarrasses you. Making you feel bad is the last thing I want to do, yet apparently I've been doing it almost constantly."
"But," I replied, "it's you. It's who you are and I love who you are."
"Yes," she said, "but I don't want it to be who we are."
"Okay," I agreed and she kissed me chastely.
"Oooooooh!" I heard Kara exclaim from the kitchen followed by a gleeful, "oh! I understand now too!"
"Good good dear," Mother followed exactly as she had moments before.
Father and the boys soon joined us for a simple lunch.
Father even greeted Shard with a surprised but respectful sounding, "Good day Shard."
I filled in Father and my brothers with my latest news and surprisingly Daavid sounded most interested in my going to Castlemere, with much the same questions as Kara. He seemed quite excited at the prospect of me seeing real Knights and asked if I would show him using my Illusions what they looked like when I returned home. I promised that I would and he was profuse in his thanks.
When Father and the boys went back out to the fields, Shard rose from her seat next to me. Mother told her that she was a guest, that she didn't need to help with dishes but Shard stood her ground, reminding Mother that she told her that she was "as welcome as in her own home." Mother relented surprisingly and Shard gave my hand a little squeeze when she walked back around me to collect some more dishes. When Mother and the girls started to prepare dinner, Shard offered to help and when Mother began to raise the same objections, Shard reframed it as a request to teach her. Listening to Mother instruct Shard on the proper way to peel and Shard's questions in return was heartwarming to me. Sometime in the previous tenday, it seemed that Mother had decided to treat Shard as she would any other daughter in law and listening to them interact like that showed me that she was giving Shard exactly what she desired.
Dinner went smoothly and although Father wasn't as talkative as normal, he did talk to Shard once or twice. I wondered whether it was just a matter of familiarisation, or whether Mother had managed to explain things to him?
After dinner, Shard excused herself to return home with an, "I'll see you soon."
Later that night, once Illith and Kara were asleep, I crept out of the room as silently as I could manage. I was surprised in the hall by Mother, who took my elbow and guided me silently out of the house.
"I thought that you might be returning to the altar," she whispered once we were outside, "how were you going to get there?"
"I was going to call Shard once I got outside," I told her, "if you want to go back to bed, I can call her now?"
"That's okay love," she replied, "It's something I'd like to be there for, if you don't mind?"
"Okay," I agreed and Mother went on to explain as we walked, "I realise, especially once you began your apprenticeship that there would be things happening in your life that I would miss out on. As time goes on I will miss out on all the big things in your life. When I think back to your first smile, your first words, your first steps… Well, I would just like to be there for as many firsts as I can."
I didn't know who started crying first, but I was the one that pulled Mother in for a hug as we stood there at what was probably the edge of the forest.
We made our way to the clearing and met Shard there, who didn't seem at all put out that I didn't call her from the house.
"Ready?" She asked and I nodded after a short moment taken to gather myself.
I didn't need to be naked now; in fact I knew that Tenebrae would probably respond even without all of the ritual, but she would be very angry at me without it. With Shard directing, I approached the altar and held my hand out for Shard to cut. I then put both hands together and as I lay them down upon the black stone altar I called out in prayer to the Mother of Darkness.
And I saw her… Even in the blackness of my blindness, just like in my mind of a night, she appeared in front of me. This time it wasn't just her face however, she walked towards me; a form of swirling blacker than black.
"I am pleased," she said, her words echoing all around the clearing. I even heard Mother shuffle, so she must have heard them as well. Her voice was rich and seductive… tempting. Calling all into her darkness, the mystery of the unknown.
"You have done well daughter of darkness," she said as she reached out towards me.
My sight returned and I watched as the darkness from my eyes flowed out in front of me, like ink droplets flowing out in a trail to stretch and join together in front of me. The line of inky darkness formed itself into the same figure of the Mother of Darkness that I saw in my own non-vision. A six foot naked woman standing on top of Shard's altar made of nothing but inky blackness, contours difficult to make out except for the slightly darker shades of black.
"And now," she said, her voice coming from her simulacrum, "I present my gift."
She stepped down off the altar, the black ink flowing down slower than it should have naturally, so that she stood directly in front of me. She bent slightly and reached both hands up to cup my face and leant in to kiss me. The kiss had none of the passion that my kisses with Shard had, nor the motherly love that I felt from Mother but was completely different. It was a chaste kiss, but it stretched slightly longer than I would have found comfortable. When she broke it though… the entire world changed! Where before, I could vaguely see two trees into the forest I could see as far as I normally would in daylight! It was different though… It was as if the entire forest was lit up with my dancing lights! It was my black light, everything had that vaguely dark light giving me clear as day sight.
"Thank you, Mother of Darkness," I said, "thank you for this gift."
"Use it wisely daughter," she instructed before her form melted before my eyes. Starting from the top of her head, she split up into the individual balls of inky blackness that fell down towards the ground, condensing and flowing, rolling into the edge of the altar that met the ground almost as if she flowed under the altar into the imperceptible gap between stone and earth.
"Well!" I exclaimed, "I won't need to hold your hand back to the farmhouse now."
"You're going to need your sleep if you're starting on the journey to Castlemere tomorrow," Mother replied.
I walked over to Shard and spent a long moment just looking at her before I prepared to say goodbye, temporarily at least.
Mother had stopped and turned around a few feet into the forest, "Come along Sharein!" She called, "are you coming Shard?"
I spun around to look at Mother, then looked back at Shard. We both shared a smile.
