Fifty Two: A Night of Stories

To say the elves's meeting room was in an uproar would be an understatement. To begin with, an angry fae is a terrifying thing. For a being so centered in explosive emotions, it's hard to control them when they lose it. And Nassir, had thoroughly lost it. As Schula and I each took one of his arms in an attempt to calm him down and hold him from lashing out, I appreciated how calm he usually was. For a fae, Nassir never lost his temper and kept a clear mind, which was impressive.

What is equally impressive, is the blind old fae's strength as he tore up the doorway, demanding answers from the already reeling Teyber, who was still trying to piece together details he could now say.

In the end a good number of green children, the scouts, came in to intervene the situation. Once Nassir calmed down and was ready to talk, the council of elves essentially banished us to Kalor's halls so they could sort out the mess, call in the Eidelhein representatives, and properly debrief Teyber two decades after the events.

We were escorted to our rooms, though I believe it was more of a precautionary surveillance after Nassir's outburst. More than a few scouts were left at the entrance, spears at the ready. Once safely inside with the scouts out of earshot, I wasted no time in setting Lark's book on my bed and rushing into Nassir's rooms where Schula was already sitting with him, speaking soothing words and holding his hand in hers.

"This feels wrong," I said, coming in and sitting on Nassir's other side. "I mean, I saw the vision she left. Lark was obviously in bad shape near the end, but did someone truly sabotage her mission?"

"I don't trust the elves, Kalor aside," Schula said. "I don't know, maybe it wasn't them. Maybe there was no sabotage. As Teyber said, they were chased and cornered all around the mountains by this man with dark sorcery, and that would drive anyone mad. But the warlock, I can't imagine why I hadn't heard of him before. Nothing like that is going to slip into the Winter lands with no gossip. I mean, a human?"

"I know what you mean," I murmured. "But we don't have enough details. I'll ask Teyber for a better description of what he looks like later. Right now I'm most concerned with getting back. I want answers, and I want to fix this barrier, and I want to face DuVarick for what he did to us. I don't care if he's a king, he's going to answer for his wrongs."

"I swear to the Stars above that if he knows who this Warlock is..." Nassir growled out, a tear slipping down his cheek. "Not even our bond can restrain me from him."

Schula's eyes widened a bit, then she slid her gaze to me. "It will be midnight soon. We fought and argued well into dinner time. I don't think we're getting any sleep tonight, but we can try to lay down and rest."

I looked around Nassir's room, he had taken his bedding from the bed and laid it on the floor, still not used to sleeping on something soft yet.

"I'll be right back." I slipped from the room, ran to my own, and pulled off my sheets as well. Then I took Schula's. Carrying all the bedding we had access to, I came back in and began laying our things on either side of Nassir's spot on the floor.

"Oh!" Schula understood. "Yes, we haven't slept so close since we stopped our travels. Let's try to calm down and tell stories like we used to."

Nassir let out a pained sigh. "I fear my heart is too heavy to tell stories tonight."

I came over and hugged him, then helped him to stand and move to the bed. "Then I'll tell some. I might have a few of Bryn's tales left that you haven't heard. He did tell me stories every day, you know."

Nassir's shoulders slumped, a tension releasing as he stood between me and Schula, walking toward his place on the floor and sitting down. "Thank you."

And then, we settled in. The tension hadn't left me, and I suspect it hadn't left the others either. We rambled about stories we could remember, but in the back of my mind I couldn't let go of what happened to my mother. The man who took her from this world. Why would he be in the Winter lands? Could DuVarick really have known about him? And if so, did he know about his hand in killing Lark?

The time crawled by. I couldn't settle in, despite Nassir finally calming down enough to drift to sleep. I hoped we hadn't missed the middle of the night, I hated not having a window so deep in the middle of the keep.

Schula watched the sleeping Nassir with worry for a while, then lifted her head. Her eyes met mine, and a silent agreement between us caused us both to stand. Softly, we left the room.

"I thought we were going to get a chance to bring Nassir with us," Schula whispered.

"I know." I frowned. "But after everything that happened..."

"Let him rest. He's distraught."

I nodded. The two of us went into our own rooms long enough to grab cloaks and we walked toward the front of Kalor's halls. I had never heard if Kalor came back or not, but I suspected that was a no.

We approached the end of the hall. peering around outside of it, I didn't see any scouts. A chill ran down my spine. It was eerie. Even if I wasn't required to have an escort, Schula was. With everything that had happened, I hadn't even thought about how we were going to sneak away without being followed, but it would seem our midnight meeting was more carefully planned by the one we were meeting than I had thought.

"I don't know if I like this or hate it," Schula muttered.

I shrugged, and we crept across the main entryway where all the halls converged on the main floor. There was no one. I held my breath as we opened the front doors, and the two outside scouts continued to look straight ahead.

"Go," one of the scouts whispered and I nearly jumped out of my skin. "We see no one."

We didn't wait for details. We began walking quickly, and took the thin path to the garden. The moon was thin and the sky dark. Even the stars were cloaked in a haze of night mist, as though the whole world was in on our midnight secrets. My nerves grew as we drew closer to the garden. I couldn't imagine what was going through Schula's head, either.

My breath caught as the garden gate appeared in our path. What kind of thoughts would Kalor have here now? Sitting alone under that tree on the little bench meant for two. Schula didn't have such hesitations, and she gently pushed the gate open, revealing the garden under the low moonlight.

The figure stood with his back to us, facing out over the horizon where you could see the trees below the plateau. It stretched for days. The figure seemed familiar, but the most calming thing about him was the fat black bird sitting on his shoulder.

"Puko?" I asked softly.

"Caw!" He turned his head to me, his one blind eye trained on us as he flapped his way over from the figure to my outstretched arms. As he landed in them, I hugged him and pushed my face into his soft feathers.

"I missed you, Puko. I just learned what happened to Lark. I'm so sorry," I whispered to him.

"You," Schula said softly, more surprised than anything else. "I don't know who I expected, but I suppose you weren't it."

I looked up to see the figure, who had now turned around. It was Fandor.

"Fandor!" I said. I had looked for him for days, and hadn't had any luck finding him. But now here he was, standing by my mother's herb patch and a pot of whispering lilies. He looked tired, as I would have expected from one of the elves trying to sort out the mess of today.

"Wren, and I believe it was Schula?" He walked slowly toward us, a gentle smile on his face. "It is good to meet you officially, though better circumstances would have been preferred."

"Why did you call us here?" I asked.

His eyes slid to mine, that lazy gaze and soft spoken way of his was so passive. But he was intelligent, I could see that as well. He folded his hands behind his back, standing straight and squaring his shoulders as he sighed.

"If my sources are correct, you are the one who wished to speak with me," he answered. "I simply wished to accommodate you, and after the noon meal announcement I thought we could talk in private."

"The announcement disregarding the dangers we came here to warn you of?" I asked flatly.

He shrugged. "I tried to sway them from this course, but alas I was outvoted heavily. Kalor was not privy to the meeting as he was deemed to be influenced by Wren and previously Lark."

"That's absurd," Schula snapped.

Fandor shrugged. "I didn't say I disagreed with you. It's a dangerous game they're playing. Valuing the peace of mind and image of the people, gambling on the fact that DuVarick can't find us or won't act on his new knowledge. Neuldor went as far as to suggest that you will succeed in your quest and silence DuVarick for us."

My eyebrows shot up in surprise. "What faith, for a council that doesn't seem concerned with our mission here and is more concerned with shaping me into an elven puzzle piece for Eidelhein."

Fandor grimaced. "Yes, I'm sure it would look that way from your perspective. Really I believe they simply didn't know what to think of you. We usually have a bit more warning before a half elf arrives in our midst, as we know they are expected to be born. You cam, fully grown and the child of a powerful witch, into our city. I believe Halduin in particular was nervous of the influence you might hold as an interesting and powerful figure. The youth are easily swayed, and if you were to call for us to rise up and seek vengeance on the Wyldes for what happened centuries ago, I believe you might actually gain a few young souls to your cause."

"I would never do that!" I protested, startling Puko.

But Fandor raised his hands between us. "I do not believe you would, but we did not know you at all when you first arrived. All I am saying, is that we did not know what to expect."

My shoulders sank a little, the fight draining back out of me. "Well, then who tipped you off that we wanted to speak to you?"

"My Grandson," Fandor answered.

"Your- oh! Cedric?" I asked.

"Yes, he told me you would be looking for me. Unfortunately I've had a busy week. I haven't been avoiding you. I finally decided that the only time I could meet you would be when neither of us are busy, I hope you don't mind the middle of the night. I rarely sleep until the early hours of the morning."

"With our studies as of late, neither do we." Schula snorted a laugh.

"So now begs the question, what is it you want from me, Wren?" Fandor asked.

I looked to Schula and back to Fandor. I stroked Puko's feathers absently as I spoke. "Well, we're in search of... something around here. I don't know how to explain it. There is something around here of great power, and we can feel it. This is a bit of a quiet mission of ours, and we promise we mean no harm to Eidelhein, but it's urgent that we find out what it is."

Fandor's expression changed to one of surprise. "A monster, hm? And you came to me to help you track it? I believe your friend Teyber would be a far superior companion in that endeavor."

"No, actually uh," I chewed my bottom lip, trying to decide how to phrase what we needed without sounding insane.

"We hear you're a bit of a lore master," Schula said. "We were actually hoping you might now of stories from the original people here that would tell of a great black beast."

"How interesting," Fandor said, tapping his chin. "You aren't hunting just any beast, are you?"

Schula and I locked eyes for a moment. "No, we're not," I said.

"I see. Well, I can't promise any of my knowledge will be real, but I suppose all folk stories have a foot in reality somewhere. But that is what I dealt in, stories."

"We understand," I said eagerly. "So do you know any creatures that would be very large, very old, very powerful, and possibly black?"

"And maybe warm, something warm," Schula added. I nodded.

Fandor chuckled. "That's an interesting set of clues to go off of. Let's see... I can think of only one thing that might match that description in all the lore I've heard in this part of the world. He was called the Night Ender. It was said, whatever he was, that he could swoop from the sky and destroy an entire village in one night. No survivors, no witnesses. Supposedly there were more than one, but this one was big. Strong. He was said to be the color of night, so I suppose he could be black. And in the end, a goddess and her band of hunters restrained the beast in chains of starlight, ending his reign of terror."

"Caw!" Puko chimed in, puffing up his feathers.

"Yes, he does sound frightening, doesn't he?" Fandor smiled, reaching over to smooth Puko's feathers. "But it's just a tale from long ago. The southern nomads would tell it, thought I believe I may be the last one alive who knows the story, as those nomads are no more."

"Could that be it?" I murmured.

"We need to try," Schula said. "Fandor, you said those nomads were south of here? Did they say where the Night Ender was chained up?"

"A holy cave, forbidden from entry to all but the goddess and her hunters. Where exactly that is I don't know, but the southern coast is filled with caverns off the angry sea. The waters there beat the rock ferociously, and there are many tunnels because of it. You aren't thinking of going there, are you?"

"I think we need to get near it, just to... feel something," I said. "Thank you, Fandor. This is just what we were looking for."

"Of course, Wren. Daughter of Lark and my dear friend Kalor. I'm glad my stories could be of some use, the others rarely want to hear them anymore."

"Fandor, can you keep this little story between us?" Schula asked.

"I can, provided nothing ill develops from it," Fandor said. "If that is all, I will take my leave. I'm afraid the council will have another long day ahead of us."

"Thank you, Fandor," I said, and the three of us left the garden. Fandor quickly went another way, and Schula and I were left alone.

"We need to travel south," Schula said. "Shall we take Nassir and go tomorrow?"

I bit my lip. "I suppose all we have left to do here is research in the books, and we can do that on the road. But I want to say goodbye to Kalor and Teyber. And shouldn't we get more details on the Warlock? And..."

"Shh, you're overthinking it. We have to come back this way to go north again. This isn't a goodbye, just a short mission south of us and then we'll be right back."

"Well," I bit my lip. "Alright. Let's take Nassir, and I want to let Kalor know what's happening, or at least that we'll be back."

"Okay."

Schula and I went back into the keep much the same way we had come in. The guards averted their eyes so it would be no lie to say they saw no one enter. We were able to creep back into Nassir's room, and lay down where he was still breathing slowly and steadily in peaceful sleep.

Tomorrow we would make a plan, and hopefully put the matter of the black presence to rest.