AUTHORS NOTES
Slyksylva: kind of. There might be a mini adventure coming up ;-)
Archer1eye: I'm surprised by story length myself and honestly a little impressed with myself ;-) Haha… nothing quite so nefarious. Remember that Sharein's mum had a love before her father :)
Chapter 6120th Day of Middle Spring 768 n.c
We made Sunhaven slightly before midday, much quicker than we did when we went walking. I wasn't really used to riding Aloise Horse on her saddle. I had learned (Mother had taught all of us girls how to ride) and enjoyed riding her about a bit but most of the time she pulled a cart. Malkarov greeted a few people that he knew in Sunhaven but we didn't stop to talk. We made Eastholm Castle not long after we left Sunhaven and were soon officially the farthest I had ever been from home. We stopped for lunch just after passing Eastholm Castle, sitting on the bank of a small creek to eat. Parts of me were sore that I couldn't ever remember being sore. Stretching helped my back, but my legs and bum were the worst. The horses loved the opportunity to graze and drink from the creekIt was a pleasant day, light clouds provided a bit of protection from the sun but left it still a little warm. Malkarov continued my lessons as we rode, quizzing me about things that I had learned and talking to me about the area and things that I could find nearby.
Malkarov announced, seemingly at random, when we had departed the Baronocracy of Eastholm and had entered Traddish Shire of the Iskar District of the Baronocracy of Iskar. I stopped and looked around in an attempt to see how he knew. He stopped and dismounted. Walking over to the side of the path he ripped some vines off a small stone block. The Iskar side had an 'E' carved into it and the Eastholm side had an 'I' carved there.
The whole area was lightly forested and slightly hilly. Malkarov pointed out two hills that could be seen through the trees, one on each side of the path that were mostly bare. Right at the top of each hill stood a lone branchless tree.
"Those hills form part of the border between Baronocracies," Malkarov explained, "Each hill has had the trees cut down, with one tree stripped down and planted back into the top of the hill. If you drew a line between each hill, it would cross exactly where that stone is."
We arrived into a town just before sundown. It was easy to recognise that we were approaching it as the light forest had started to give way to farmland that surrounded the town. It was very reminiscent of Easthaven, with similar styles of houses and I recognised the Inn immediately as the largest building there. The sign hanging over the Inn door showed a bull and a bell.
"Traedalish," Malkarov said, "the biggest town in Traddish Shire."
A stablehand came running out from the side of the Inn to collect our horses. We took our staves and packs with us into the Inn. Malkarov held the door open for me and we made our way into the common room. It was fairly busy, with an assortment of farmers, merchants and merchant's guards. Just as often happened in Easthaven, the merchants tended to sit down at tables together and their guards at their own tables together. Merchant's guards were only paid to protect the merchants on the roads and as they often worked together at one time or another they all seemed to know each other.
"Welcome to the Bull and Bell Inn!" said a large man standing behind the bar. He had a big brown beard and next to no hair on his head and wore the traditional apron of a bartender.
"Two rooms for the night?" Malkarov asked.
"Four Suns," he replied, "will you be wanting a feed and grog as well?"
"Yes," Malkarov said, "once we've got the rooms sorted."
The barkeep nodded, "we've got a chicken stew on for three Moons or a hunk of beef with peas and roasted vegetables for five. We've got kegs of Merryman Ale for ten bits a mug or Pardies for eight, just so's you know."
"My thanks," Malkarov told him.
The barkeep just nodded before he shouted out, "Jim!"
A young man about my age came running out from the kitchen, skidding to a halt in front of us. His eyes widened a little at Malkarov's appearance but seemed to discount me for a moment.
"Take them up to rooms three and four," the barkeeper instructed him.
"Follow me please sirs," he said before actually looking at my face for the first time. His face flamed red as the barkeep started laughing.
"M… Ma'am," he stuttered.
Obviously weren't that common for women even this far from Easthaven. I giggled a bit at his reaction and then felt a bit bad for him when he tripped on one of the steps.
He took us upstairs and pointed out two adjacent rooms.
"W...will you re...require anything else?" he asked nervously.
Malkarov smiled and flipped the boy a bit, "no thank you lad."
Once the boy had made his way down the steps I began to ask Malkarov, "May I…"
Which he immediately finished for me with a smile and a wink, "invite Shard? Of course you can. Honestly, I'm surprised you waited this long. After dinner though, I'd like you to join me in my room for an enchanting lesson. Bring your staff."
I nodded to him excitedly and we made our way into our rooms. I left my pack and staff on the floor at the foot of the bed, which would be enough for Shard and I if we snuggled close. My sword, I left on my belt. I had no idea whether I was supposed to leave it behind or not, but I thought I remembered seeing at least one of the merchant's guards had a sword on their hip. The room had a small wash stand in one corner and a chamber pot in another. It was very sparse, but I imagined it would be better than sleeping on the ground. I washed my face and called out to Shard, immediately feeling her presence behind me.
"Ooh!" She exclaimed, "where are we, love?"
"Traedalish in Iskar, in an Inn called the Bull and Bell," I informed her, spinning around and giving her a hug and a kiss, "would you like to join us for dinner?"
She smiled at me, "I'd love that!"
There was a knock on the door and Malkarov said, "let me know when you are ready to come down."
We opened up the door with a quick, "ready!" and all made our way down into the common room.
The bartender went to say something when we arrived into the common room, but stopped when he saw Shard walking down with us also.
"Dinner for… three?" He asked in confusion.
"Please," Malkarov said, then turned to us, "chicken stew or roasted beef?"
I looked at Shard who seemed to be weighing her options, "how about one of each, and we'll share?" I suggested. Shard smiled at my suggestion, nodded and then proceeded to snake her arm around my waist.
"Two beef and one stew please," Malkarov ordered, "and three mugs of Merryman's."
"What's 'Merrymans'?" Shard whispered.
"Ale, brewed by Master Merryman in Easthaven," I explained, then asked with realisation, "do you like ale?"
"I don't know," she said happily, "let's find out!"
We made our way to a table and Shard sidled onto the bench next to me, with both of us opposite Malkarov. The barkeep brought us the mugs of ale first.
When Shard took a sip we both watched her expectantly. She lowered the mug, leaving a foam moustache behind and looked thoughtful for a moment.
"It's," she began and Malkarov leaned forward a little, "it's like liquid bread! Ingenious!"
Malkarov let out a little excited whoop, which caused the common room to go silent and others around us to look at him. Noticing the attention Malkarov turned around a little and announced to the common room while pointing at Shard, "first taste of ale!"
The entire common room let out a cheer and seemed to all take a drink simultaneously. I just looked at Malkarov in confusion while Shard looked around at the room in surprise. The conversations in the room had re-started.
"Some people," Malkarov said to us quietly, "especially those who spend most of their time in common rooms, tend to take their ale drinking very seriously."
"Ah!" Shard replied sagely.
The Innkeeper brought our meals and Shard and I swapped between each other's, as I had suggested. We got sick of swapping the crockery around however and instead started feeding each other… until Malkarov noticed and started to make fake vomiting sounds.
"Are you ill?" Shard asked him, full of concern.
Malkarov laughed, "only as far as your cute display can make me. Never mind me, I'm just old and jaded."
Shard absolutely loved the taste of both meals, remaining undecided as to which she preferred. For myself, I preferred the roasted beef.
We finished up our dinner and Malkarov paid the bartender for our rooms, meals and ales.
As Shard and I walked up the steps I told her, "Malkarov wants me to bring my staff into him to work on some enchanting before bed."
She nodded in reply and we did as I had told her. Malkarov greeted us and had me sit down on the floor with him, while Shard perched herself on the edge of the bed to watch. From his pack, he withdrew a small bundle, which rolled out to reveal a selection of knives, chisels and hammers. He also produced a scroll, which he rolled out beside us.
"This is the rune scheme I have been working on for Shard's power bank feedback loop," he explained, "I have already tested it in a small manner on something that I could throw away and it seemed to work. So, tonight you shall carve this rune scheme onto your staff. Tomorrow night we will fill it in and during our trip on the day after you will power it."
Malkarov produced a small piece of wood and demonstrated the use of the tools to me, which Shard found fascinating. He then watched as I began to painstakingly carve the runes onto my staff. At his suggestion, I placed the power bank slightly under the middle of the staff so that I could place other rune schemes above and below it while leaving the middle free to grasp, or add activation runes. It took quite a while to do, during which Malkarov and Shard began a discussion on what else she was 'withholding from him'.
"Done!" I declared, proudly passing over my staff for his inspection.
He had barely looked at it when he asked, "what's this?"
"What's what?" I asked back.
"This, this," he said pointing to the rune scheme on my staff.
I looked at the section he was pointing at and pointed at his scroll myself, "it's that bit right…" But it wasn't there. I had copied it out faithfully, checking and double checking each bit as I went. I couldn't even remember carving the bit he was pointing at! It didn't even look like it was made up of any runes that he had taught me! I felt dejected, I had no idea what I had done but I had obviously ruined the staff.
"Why did you carve indirithalianthikaris there?" Shard asked curiously.
"What?" Malkarov and I both turned to her simultaneously.
"The rune," Shard said, "indirithalianthikaris, why did you put it there? And why didn't you couple it with karilithilianthirakisil? They always go together."
"I.. don't know," I said even as Malkarov demanded, "what are those runes?"
Shard frowned, "These runes," she said, gesturing towards Malkarov's scroll, "are the ones that humans made up to talk to magic. The other runes are the ones that magic itself uses, but indirithalianthikaris never appears by itself."
"What does it do?" Malkarov asked the paradeity.
She shrugged, "I have no idea. Deities have their own runes that they use, these are magic's runes. I recognise them and we have names for them, but we don't understand what they mean."
Malkarov and Shard both frowned down at my staff. I followed their gaze and frowned at it myself.
"Without knowing what it does," Malkarov said, "we cannot power the staff, there's no knowing what will happen."
"Especially," Shard said, interrupting him, "considering it's wrong."
I pouted a little, but there was really no helping it. Getting rid of it made perfect sense.
"Never mind Sharein," Malkarov said, patting me on the shoulder, "we'll find another staff for you to have another go with."
Shard climbed down from the bed to give me a hug.
"Thanks," I said to both of them, kissing Shard on the forehead, "I understand."
"I have plenty of ink with me," Malkarov said, "you may as well use this to practice with. Making a mistake with the ink could have made the staff worthless to enchant anyway, so we may as well practice on this one."
Malkarov pulled out a vial of silvery liquid and a brush, "we just won't go through the powering process, the third step."
Malkarov instructed me on how to dip the brush into the ink and how to hold the brush to ensure that the ink didn't flow out of the groove. The silvery ink was thick and seemed to dry almost instantly as it settled into the rune grooves. It filled in the grooves completely, leaving the staff with the appearance that the runes had merely been painted onto its surface. I was almost finished, wondering whether I should bother filling in the strange alien runes that I had unknowingly added. I decided to do so for completeness' sake.
"Almost done," I said to Malkarov and Shard as I dipped the brush into the inkwell for the final time. I lowered the brush to fill in the last stroke. Once I completed it, I looked up to Malkarov to ask him what to do with the brush.
Malkarov and Shard's eyes widened and a bluish glow lit up the room. I looked back at my staff to see a blue point of light racing around the runes, tracing them. It was joined by another light and another! So quickly more points of light were added until the entire rune scheme was lit up.
"What did you do?" Malkarov yelled. His face and Shard's were both matching pictures of fear. Their face and the entire room was lit up by the blue light from the staff.
"Nothing!" I yelled back, looking at him in horror.
Without warning the light in the runes stopped completely and in its absence the room became suddenly much darker. But only for a moment.
We were all suddenly blinded by a flash of blue white light coming from the staff.
