Forty Nine: Study and Practice

Kalor's room was comfortable and quiet, the perfect place to study. The front room where he had a collection of books and a desk was a good place to spread out Lark's book, as well as my own for taking notes. Kalor himself was sitting in his favorite chair, reading a thick volume of his own while I quietly scoured Lark's words.

Schula was playing dress up with Nassir and his new elven outfit, and then they were going to be escorted to see the training fields. Schlua wanted some practice and Nassir wanted to get out of the keep. I stayed behind so I could continue to work toward my goals with the books.

Yawning, I plucked another honeyfruit from the bowl next to me and pulled out the stem. I looked at the pits I had set aside from the other fruit I had been eating while I studied. Considering I was supposed to make an appearance at dinner that night, I should probably have stopped two or three fruits ago.

A knock at the door roused me and Kalor from our comfortable silence, and he set his book down to answer the door. Pulling it open, I watched him speak in hushed tones with a tall, slender male. His ears were prominent, definitely a recent generation of elven child.

Kalor moved back a step and the visitor peered around him to get a look at me.

"Wren," my father said. "This is Cedric. He is here to assist you with acclimating to the social structure of Eidelhein. You might remember Lord Halduin mentioning this."

"Yes, hello." I stood from the desk and walked over to shake Cedric's hand. "It's nice to meet you."

"The pleasure is mine," Cedric answered with a smile.

"Cedric here is a third generation elf. A descendant of Fandor's daughter Celestia. I should also mention he's a bit of a historian for the keep here, and he attends almost every ceremony or party we hold as well. He is a perfect choice to lend you his knowledge. Far better than someone who doesn't partake in public events very often, such as myself." Kalor winked.

Cedric smirked. "You know, we would love for you to visit more often, Kalor. "

Kalor laughed and shook his head. "A very diplomatic lie, Cedric. There are plenty who would be glad if I just stayed in here with my books."

Instead of arguing further, Cedric turned to me and offered a hand. "Lady Wren, I'd love the opportunity to find out what you've learned of Eidelhein so far, and see what I could fill you in on."

"Er, well, I was actually in the middle of some study. I do have pressing matters here that I'm-"

"I'll only be a short time!" Cedric insisted. "I promise. I'm just trying to do the job that was given to me, and I hope you allow me to do it properly."

I sighed through my nose, already exhausted of the social structures of the elven city. All I wanted to do was to spend time with Kalor and study my books. Still, that wasn't Cedric's fault, and likely this job had been thrust upon him without asking how he felt about it.

"Very well, Cedric," I said as I closed my book. "Let's go for a walk and you can show me around better. We can stretch our legs before the dinner bell."

"Thank you, Lady Wren. I promise to not take up more of your time than I need to." He nodded to Kalor. "We should be back in time for dinner, will you be joining the rest of us today?"

Kalor gave me a lopsided grin. "Yes, I suppose my daughter and I will both be at dinner tonight."

"Wonderful!" Cedric clapped his hands together. "We'll see you there. This way, Lady Wren. Let me show you the hall of portraits."

I grimaced. "Wonderful."

And Cedric wasted no time in whisking me off to a history lesson.

Eyes followed me as we walked around the keep. Nothing I hadn't gotten used to. In Silver Lake. In Thanantholl. In Dwellonmar. In Sulls. In the desert. In the valley of the witches. The list kept growing, and the longer it got the more I realized what a solitary person I preferred to be. Maybe someday, if I dared to hope I could still settle down in the Autumn lands with my friends, maybe I could hope for a small cabin a bit away from everyone else.

Cedric pulled me in and out of my own thoughts as he droned on. The first elves, which I had already met. Their history, which I somewhat knew but was given an abundance of details on. Then Celestia, and her families. She had several children, about half of them still living, and they in turn had many children of their own. It was no wonder Eidelhein grew so fast, and held so many partial elves.

"This is the feast that was held in celebration of her first child. You can see here she is a short bit into her pregnancy, but the celebration was held as soon as the news had spread. That's her first husband there, next to Fandor, with the wine."

I looked intently at the painting. The jovial Fandor who was freely pouring wine next to a laughing old human woman and a younger man was hard to reconcile with the quiet and pensive Fandor I knew.

And then, I thought of another side of Fandor that I hadn't looked into yet.

"Hey, Cedric," I started slowly. "Did Fandor ever... explore? I mean, or maybe he listened to the local stories of... monsters?"

Cedric paused, raising an eyebrow. "Monsters? Well, he is something of a lore master I suppose. In the early days, he was the one who not only made and kept contact with the native humans, but he also took the time to learn their stories."

"Really?" I murmured, watching the painting of the once happy Fandor. "I like that. The fact that he wanted to know their stories and not just press the elven ways to them."

Cedric nodded. "A noble pursuit, one that ultimately led to our current cohabitation of forest people and elven children, and of course Celestia."

"Indeed..."

"So, if you were wanting to know about local folk tales of heroes and monsters of the forest, Fandor would be the one to ask," Cedric said.

"And where does Fandor spend his time? Out of curiosity, of course."

Cedric was still smiling at me but his brows knit together slightly, and I knew he was trying to figure out what I could possibly want with that information. "Lord Fandor keeps to his quarters mostly. It's rare to find him outside of them or the council room. However, unlike Kalor, Fandor does grace us with his presence at dinner most nights. I suspect you could possibly see him tonight."

"Yes, thank you. I think I'll try to ask him about the lore of the forest then," I said softly. Cedric took the answer with a shrug, and moved on down the hall.

"Over here you can see a little more distinctly what her first born looked like. This painting was given to Celestia as a gift from the chief of the western part of the forest. Now, it's of note to mention the variance of tree species that begins to appear in that part of the region. You see, as the hills begin to rise and the air thins out, the types of wood available to the people who live there are..."

I tried my best to listen to Cedric drone on as we walked the hall. He mixed in some names of notable citizens while we walked. People I might actually meet soon, and ones who would likely be gossips and to stay away from them. My heart panged with a wave of fondness and sorrow over Eberon. He would be the one to navigate things like dinner tonight, or socialite gossips.

Cedric kept on, giving me what information he thought would benefit me. I was nearly asleep on my feet by the time we finished in the collection of art and history. The most exciting part was when the bell rang, waking me up and stopping Cedric from continuing.

"Ah, dinner is nearly ready. We should head down there," he said. "I can show you to an acceptable seat in the room, and then I will leave you to your meal."

"Thank you, Cedric. It's been very... educational," I said.

I followed him down the hall and into the stairwell that would carry us to the main entrance again. From there, we found several other people heading in the same direction and joined them. I had never been in the dining hall before, and I can't say I was looking forward to it either. I expected the stares I got, but it was the whispers I didn't want to deal with. They began the moment I arrived, and of course with my ears I could hear them all.

Kalor's daughter. Lark's daughter. Where has she been? Why is she here?

I tried to ignore it as I looked around the hall.

We stepped through a double wide door and into a spacious room. Comfortable wooden tables filled the room. They didn't appear to be in any kind of order, but upon closer inspection you could tell which tables were for which kinds of people. Soldiers sat together. Scouts sat together. Scholars sat together, and so on.

Cedric walked me to a table at the back of the hall where Kalor was already sitting and chatting with several others. The members of the council I recognized, but I also saw other partial elves, and a couple humans. I wanted to put the names Cedric had given me with a face, but I couldn't quite yet. I needed them to speak and give me a clue as to who they were.

"Wren, my daughter. Please, sit with me." Kalor greeted me with a warm smile.

I turned to thank Cedric once more before I took my seat next to my father. Cedric left with a polite bow, and strolled away. I took my seat, and tried to ignore the table of eyes watching my every move.

"So, Halduin, you were saying?" An older human wearing a bit of armor and a serious face turned to the elven councilman and folded his hands together on the table in front of him.

"Yes, as I was saying, the grove was reported to have a disease so we ended up having to clear some of the trees away. We won't see a very full harvest again for a few years."

"What's a few years to one of you long eared bastards?" The old man chuckled.

My eyes widened in shock at his words, until I saw Halduin join in on the laughter.

"Berd is a bit brash, but he's charming in his own way," Kalor leaned in to whisper in my ear.

Berd, one of the elected representatives of the city. I nodded, committing him to memory.

The conversation continued and food began to come out on trays. Instead of leaving dishes of food on the tables for us, servers would approach each seat and fill the plates upon request, depending on what kind of food they had to offer.

I watched quietly as they worked, and I spent the quiet time looking around the room. Cedric had said Fandor often came to dinner in the hall, but there was no sign of him today. Teyber sat with some of his scouts, and I wished we could be sitting with him instead. At least him and Kalor spoke to each other. Instead, I sat in silence with Kalor while everyone else at our table joined in the conversation.

I did learn a few more names though. The humans at our table were both elected representatives. A couple of the other partial elves were too. And one of Celestia's grandchildren were there accompanying Halduin with the familiarity of a lover. I wondered how Fandor felt about that, or if the long lives of the elves made that sort of thing common.

The dinner was nice, if not blander than my usual tastes allowed. The conversation around me stayed light, and while I wasn't invited in on it, I could tell everyone in the dining hall was aware of me and my actions the whole time.

It was tiresome, and I was glad when people began to leave the room, signaling that it was probably not strange for me to excuse myself as well.

"I can walk you back, Wren," Kalor offered.

But I shook my head. He had finally struck up a conversation, and I wasn't about to interrupt it. "No, thank you. I think I would like to walk back and clear my head before studying more."

He smiled and nodded. "Very well. I will see you later then."

I left the hall, trying not to walk faster than could be considered polite. But once I was out of sight, I had no qualms about rushing to the sanctity of Kalor's halls.

With a heavy sigh, I gladly sunk into one of the chairs in the common space. Books were scattered around the table, obviously Schula and Nassir had done some more work while I was getting my history lessons. I didn't see them now, but I could hear sounds from Schula's room that told me she was at least here in Kalor's halls.

I eyed a book, and pulled it to me with a grunt. As tired as I was, I had lost a lot of time that afternoon that I wanted to spend looking through the volumes from the witches. I opened the book to where the page of notes for that book was stored, and continued the work.

The time passed and the candles grew low. I lit more, and those grew low too. Yawning, I laid my head down for just a moment.

Just a moment.

And I fell asleep.