I’m sorry this took so long to
get out, but I had it written, then I really didn’t like, so I went back and
changed it, so I’ve got most of the next chapter written as well... Please forgive me the long wait!! As usual, none of the characters other then
Tarin, Windance, her friends, Fenda, and Rentha belong to me, as well as
Jerra. The rest, as well as Valdemar,
and all the ideas/concepts, belong to the great and wonderful Mercedes Lackey. All hail the Great Misty!!! This is supposed to lead up to what happens
in the next chapter, but I don’t think I did a very good job of it. Let me know what you think, please!
Windance glanced around her,
relying mostly on her physical senses, as well as her undeveloped magical ones
she used by instinct. There was no one
around, she finally assured herself.
She led Tarin, saddled and ready to go, through the door to the stables
for the Companions, and strode towards the closest gate, knowing that the guard
was changing and that for one brief moment there would be enough confusion that
she would be able to slip by unnoticed.
She had chosen the early morning hours of a brilliant summer morning for
her escape, and she reveled in the crisp air.
Though, she amended, it would never replace a proper forest.
:Let’s go!: she cried
to Tarin, already feeling freedom that she hadn’t felt in the ten months she
had been at the Collegium.
:Yes, Chosen.: Tarin’s mind-voice
was subdued, and Windance guessed it was because he still didn’t agree with her
plan to leave the Collegium.
:Tarin, I will do this no
matter what you or anyone else thinks, so please at least be gracious about
it.: Windance was finally starting
to lose her considerably mild temper with her mind-mate. She knew that he didn’t approve, but she
knew that she would start to feel as Jerra did if she waited any longer to see
her home. The two of them had reached
the outer gates by this time, and they left the people full city for the calmer
countryside.
:Chosen, I know I do not
have to like, and I don’t. But if this
is you’re wish, then I will not let you go alone. It’s just a feeling of restlessness, and I don’t think—: he stopped, cut off as it felt as if the
ground shook beneath both of them, as if they were writhing in magical
energy. The pain of the shake rattled
Windance’s senses, and she hung onto consciousness by a thin thread. It was a losing battle, and the last thing
she thought before giving in was a faint plea to get to safety.
She opened her eyes to see a
sea of blurry images before her, and she closed them again, willing her head to
stop throbbing so she could make sense of what she saw. When she opened them again she saw that
being knocked unconscious like she had messed up her vision so that she now
saw, without trying, with Mage-sight overlaid with normal sight, and that was
what had blurred what she saw when she had just woken up. Or at least she
assumed it was Mage-sight, but something was not right...
She quickly closed her eyes
again, when she heard silently, :Chosen?: Tarin’s panicked mind-voice
called to her.
:I’m fine, love. What about you? Are you alright, and do you know what happened back there?:
she asked him, opening her eyes, finally feeling as if she could see without
feeling faint, or dizzy, or seeing odd Mage-Sights.
:I am alright. I think something either attacked you, or
contacted you. I really can’t tell
which one it is, though, Chosen.:
Windance noticed the Healer
fussing over her, after she had focused on something other then her
Companion. There were also two Heralds
in the room, and she winced when she realized who they were. She saw Jerra, who was now a Herald, and who
must have just returned from his internship, and she also saw Fenda, the Herald
currently teaching the trainees in the Mage-gift, when Elspeth was unavailable.
“You shouldn’t even be awake
yet, youngling,” the Healer admonished her gently. He stood up from where he had been kneeling at her side,
obviously Healing her wounds she had received, though she didn’t remember
getting hurt.
“I can’t exactly help it, you
know,” she said. “How did I get hurt?”
she asked, staring at the Heralds, hoping one of them at least would know what
had happened to her.
“We were hoping you could tell
us, Windance. You arrived here on
Tarin’s back, even though you hadn’t yet been missed, and he nearly collapsed
too.” Windance ducked her head at the
faint tone of condensation in the Herald-Mage’s voice.
:Tarin, are you sure you
are alright? You had better not be
lying so that I don’t worry!: Windance asked her Companion, slightly angry
at the implication that she didn’t take care of her Companion.
:I am fine, love. Fenda is just worried. Most of the Herald-Mages already knew you
had extreme potential Mage-Gift, but black-outs are never good signs in
un-trained.:
“Oh,” she said, out loud,
thinking. She hadn’t known her personal
things were broadcast through out the Collegium, and she was not sure she liked
it. “So falling unconscious on your
Companion’s back isn’t a good thing?” she asked wryly, receiving a exasperated
chuckle from Jerra, who had probably been half expecting humour from her.
“Why didn’t you tell anyone
you were going to leave, Windance?” Fenda asked her angrily, continuing on her
tirade that Windance had inadvertently stopped by her conversation with
Tarin. “You could’ve left at any of the
holidays, yet you chose, coincidentally, the time when you were to begin your
training!”
Windance sat up at that, her
own anger coming to the fore. “Oh yes,
I’ll make a point of running away again at precisely the time when I’ll
inconvenience you the most, is that so?
If someone had bothered to tell me that I was starting training,
perhaps that would have helped!”
Windance paused, staring the Mage in the eyes, before continuing in her
language, unconsciously choosing the language she was most comfortable in. “I may have been Chosen, but I still don’t
know if I like the idea of being a Herald.
And don’t give me that ‘No one’s ever not wanted to be a Herald’
line. I. Don’t. Care. I am not Valdemaren, and you don’t have any
say over me. So what if I choose to go
wander the Plains, or Pelagiris forest with my Companion? What’s it to you, inzari?” Windance’s contempt was clear, even though
Fenda hadn’t understood the last part of her own tirade.
“Windance!” Jerra said
sharply. “That was uncalled for!” He was referring to her last insult, calling
Fenda an inzari, or hated enemy.
“Shut up!” she replied in
Tayledras. She was currently on the
receiving end of some very disturbing visions, ones the she recognized as the
same ones that had made her black out before, only now Tarin could filter them
so she could understand. She wasn’t
feeling particularly gracious, and it showed.
Her previous joking mood had, by now, completely disappeared. “I don’t like being ordered around, and
there’s something happening at home, I know it! Don’t you get it, Jerra? Or have you forgotten so much
already? I finally understand why I
blacked out. There’s something
happening at home.” She finished with a
sigh, her odd and unreliable Foresight also telling her that she was not the
one who would invariably aid her people out of the danger. “And I can’t do anything!” she added, and
sobbed onto Jerra’s Whites as he rushed forward to comfort her.
Windance continued to speak,
her words, now in Valdemaren, muffled by Jerra’s Whites. “Treesong’s gone, I’m not sure where, but
she is beyond my capabilities to reach her.
Which means either that she is gone, dead,” Windance paused, shuddering
at the feeling of dread that possibility arose in her, “or she is blocked. Which could mean any number of things. But one is for sure. Now that all of the younger members of
k’Ren’fa are gone, the clan is declining.
Our homes are failing, and our people are dying off. There have been no new births since you
left, did you know that, Jerra?
Treesong and I were the youngest, after you were Chosen. And we weren’t even born to the clan! The Eldest is losing his battle, and the
clan will die with him. His predictions
are no longer accurate, and he can no longer guide the clan, with the others
that had Gifts gone. Oh, Jerra, what do
we do?” The broken up information
finally settled into place in Jerra’s mind, and he saw what she was trying to
tell him through the haze of the visions.
He held on tighter, acting as if he was an older brother comforting a
younger sister. And that was exactly
what he considered himself to be.
“Hush, al’sh’aen. Someone will deal with this, Windance. Our clan will not die.” He smoothed her hair softly, conveying
comforting thoughts gently.
Fenda watched all this with a
surprised gaze. She knew for a fact
that Jerra had no Gifts other then Mage-Gift, except for just enough Mindspeech
to speak with his Companion, but the rapport between the two of them looked
suspiciously like one between two Empathy or Thought-sensing Heralds. The information of their clan she filed away
carefully, so she would be able to report to the Heraldic Council later. Contrary to Windance’s thoughts, only very
few Heralds knew much at all about the two k’Ren’fa Heralds/Trainees, and what
they did know was only what either Jerra or Windance had shared with them. She had been about to leave, so that they
could be alone when Windance, not even bothering to lift her head, said to her,
“What Jerra and I have, all of out clan have with each other. Perhaps it is our history that even we do
not know, but our clan has always been able to converse and share like
this. Perhaps it is magic, perhaps not,
but this is how, until now, we have survived un-detected. Go now, report to who you must. I will be fine. Make sure,” and now she did lift her head from Jera’s shoulder,
“that whoever you send to the Pelagiris has very good intentions, and is
capable of living with disappointment.
My people do not tolerate strangers.
And I now know that my black-out is the cause of Foresight, not
Mage-Gift. That information is courtesy
of the ever-so-helpful Companion’s. Zhai’helleva.”
Fenda met the sliver-haired
girl’s now-pale eyes, and nodded. The
fact that this child was still able to get through any and all shields still
unnerved anyone she did it to. Fenda
left quietly, knowing that as soon as she reported to the Queen and the
Heraldic council she would have to start Windance’s training. Someone who Far-saw as vividly as she did,
and had as little control over her other Gifts as the golden-skinned girl
needed to start as soon as possible.
The potential for disaster scared her witless. Thank the gods for Companion’s, she thought, and received
a smug smile from her own. She left
quietly, closing the door, and setting a small spell outside so that they would
not be disturbed, except in an emergency.
Now I get to go explain
this to the council. What fun...
Surprisingly, the meeting with
the Heraldic Council didn’t go as bad as Fenda though it would. The high-ranked Heralds merely asked her to
ensure that all was being done for the girl that was needed, and had sent her
off. With barely a thought on the
matter.
That’s it? And to think I couldn’t have thought
of that myself, of course not. She
smirked to herself. As much as she
loved her job, there were times when she doubted the true meaning behind a lot
of old traditions. Like having to go
through the Council for silly thing like this.
Oh, well, I’ll just start her training, and see where she goes from
there.
“That’s it!” Rentha cried enthusiastically, as her pupil
managed to rein in her previously uncontrollable Gift. She Saw the girl focus the incoming images,
and watched mentally as she sorted through what she saw. She was happy that the girl had finally
managed to gain control, as she had had the hardest time of anyone Rentha had
previously taught in the training of Foresight.
The two of them were outside,
in the crisp autumn air, over two years since the first incident with Windance’s
Gift.
Windance dropped out of her
trance, gasping with exertion. She
hadn’t worked that hard since she had first begun to walk the tree-roads in
k’Ren’fa. She, too, was happy that she
could now control what she Saw, and she hoped it would bring down the
disturbing images she Saw...
“Good, good. That was a
perfect Foresight viewing. It is odd
how, after being unable to do it for so long, that you could do it perfectly
all at once, but I suppose it is merely making up for lost time. Now, I know you will be tired, so go and
rest, and I can let you go now. You’ve
learned what is needed, so there’s not much else I can teach you.” The Foresight Herald-teacher shooed her
young charge off to her room, adding the odd, sudden ability to control her
Gift to the long list of oddities surrounding the girl, a list that included
more and more blackouts that none had been able to rationalize, aside from some
sort of Gift manifestation. “You’ve
finished you Mage-Gift training, then?” she asked. The girl had the two Gifts, Mage and Foresight, and Windance had
finished her training in the former almost six months previous.
Windance unfolded her legs
from the cramped position they had been in for her trance, and picked her self
off of the ground. She gave a brief nod
to her teacher, and headed off to her room with Tarin in tow.
:Are you sure you did not
over-extend yourself, Chosen?: he asked her, deeply concerned. His Chosen was known to be strong, and was
also known to often forget her few limitations. He supported her, allowing her to lean on him as they wandered
from the gardens that she had been studying in.
:I’m fine, alshoa’kreth. Maybe now, the—: she stopped, as if she
didn’t want to finished her thought.
She ignored his mental promptings, merely drawing on his strength
silently, which frustrated him to no end.
How could he help his Chosen, be her Companion, if she refused to share
her problems with him?
It was with a frustrated mind
that Tarin left his Chosen that night, feeling oddly expectant, as if he was
awaiting some huge disaster to befall them.
To be continued...
3/5/o2 – 8:56 pm