Kerrinne stood outside on her balcony at the House of Ivory facing the waterfall where the river Whisper splashed down behind her castle into a pooled area before the river continued on westward.  The clouds overhead were low and dark, and a gusty wind teased and tugged longingly at Kerrinne and her hair as she stood there in her thoughts.

Every night that goes between
I feel a little less
As you slowly go away from me
This is only another test

Every night you do not come
Your softness fades away
Did I ever really care that much
Is there anything left to say

Every hour of fear I spend
My body tries to cry
Living through each empty night
A deadly call inside

I haven’t felt this way I feel
Since many a year ago
But in those years and the lifetimes past
I did not deal with the road

And I did not deal with you I know
Tho the love has always been
So I search to find an answer there
So I can truly win

So I try to say
Goodbye my friend
I’d like to leave you with something warm
But never have I been a blue calm sea
I have always been a storm

We were frail
She said
“Everynight he will break your heart”
I should have known from the first
I’d be the broken hearted
But I loved you from the start
Save us. . .
And not all the prayers in the world–
could save us

Perhaps it was that she felt so comfortable in storms, because she was one.  Perhaps it was that storms were never supposed to linger around with a lover for too long.  Perhaps it was that storms could not be loved.  Whatever the reason, she would continue her raging, but always remembering the days when there was one man that could calm the storm.

Lyrics to Storms by Stevie Nicks

The dreams seemed to have paused for a while.  They do this usually when there’s going to be a break in time sequence.  Meaning the next time I go to the realm where  my son Relic lives, he will be much older.  It is sad to miss out on it now, but next time I see him I will have recollections of what we did during the time I wasn’t dreaming about him.

My days here are busy trying to plot to take back over the Underground.  I can’t write much about it now, but I will fill you in on all the juicy details once I’m done and my baby has been returned back to me.

I’m watching Kyle, and more and more he is ready to be King.  He will be a good King, I know.  And the people of Ivory will love him very deeply, just as they are becoming endeared to Korrina.  How such wonderful children could come from me is beyond my understanding.  Then again, how such a wickedly delightful woman could come from my mother is also another mystery.

I spend my days staring into the waters of the river Whisper, and sometimes the reflection of a bald man appears.  I wonder what Cicero is doing these days.  I spend my evenings watching Vois finish up at Ivory Stables that he now manages.  I wonder where he goes at night when he leaves here.  I wonder where he was for all those years we were apart.

I wonder if Cicero and Vois still remember…

…I am a woman with a heart, even if it is a little hardened on the outside.

During the course of my life, I have travelled through many lands and many worlds.  Time has lost so much meaning to me because of the differences in each land and in each world that I no longer remember how long ago I was born.  However, even with all the confusion of time, I do recall with absolute clarity my first conscious memory of life.

I was born in 1478 in Lochinver, Scotland.  This area in the highlands was known for its many lochs, or lakes in common, and peat bogs.  Fishing was by far the largest industry of the area, but there were also great opportunities for goats, sheep, and oats (ground by a few mills in the area).   This area only had about 1400 hours of sunshine per year, which means more than half the year was spent under rain clouds.  The ground is lush and green, but also dangerous for those not fond of traveling over rugged conditions.

It was here I grew up with my twin sister, Karrah, who was born a mere few minutes behind me to Mr. and Mrs. Benjamin Karal MacMillan.  Our father had grown up in the Lairg area, but his family was forced out due to some strange incidents that had surrounded my paternal grandfather.  The family was very normal in every way, but they harbored a very strange secret for hundreds of years.  The secret was that the first-born son of the second born son would always produce children with highly unusual gifts.  In Scotland, these were not gifts you taunted in the centuries of my father’s and my own life.  They were magical in nature, and often seen by the Roman Catholic Church as demonic.  This magical gene was that of the pyromancer–the master of fire.

Our mother was a third cousin of the last native Prince of Wales, Llywelyn ap Gruffudd, but her family scattered upon English encroachment and possession of Wales.  It was said that for generations, the women in my mother’s family practiced the ancient arts of Druidry modifying it slightly to more feminine ways (which would later evolve into witchcraft).  When the family scattered, her parents had taken her to Ireland where they changed their last name to Dougal.  My mother grew up there learning in secret the arts of the evolving druidry from her mother, but her travels as a young woman would bring her to Scotland where she met my father.

It was love at first sight for the both of them, and then once they learned of each other’s family secrets the bond was cemented even further.  They were kindred spirits in many ways, and to this day, I never recall them having an argument or disagreement of any sorts, as their ways of thinking were so very similar.

The conditions of Scotland that we were born under were quiet, but you could feel the tensions building in the air everywhere around us.  James III was King of Scotland, crowned at the age of nine.  By the time my sister and I were born in 1478, his world was beginning to unravel mostly due to his own insecurities and fears.  I remember my parents not being satisfied with James III and his peace making attempts with England.  The core of Scottish people, including the wealthy landowners, all wanted to be independent from England.  We were our own nation with our own way of living that in many areas of Scotland was quite different from the customs and traditions of England.  Not to mention, that when the time came we would accept the reformed churches and leave the Roman Catholic Church that we had come to resent and view as corrupt during the time of my childhood.

Anyway, I have babbled on, but I wanted to give you an idea of where I was born to frame my first memory.  So let me share that with you now.  I think Karrah and I were about four years old.  We were running through a machair amidst the Yellow Rattle, a carpet flower.  She was chasing me, or perhaps I was chasing her.  I am not 100% sure.  I just know that we were running, and then we fell down together in the grass.

A strong breeze whipped across the bay and tangled Karrah’s ebony hair with my strawberry-blonde strands, and we laughed as our eyes met.  I remember thinking as I gazed into her eyes how easy it was to see what she was thinking and feeling without talking.  It felt so foreign to deal with other people, because I did not have this connection with them that I had with her.  The memory ends with hearing my mother’s voice in the distance calling us in for a meal and the sight of a grey heron making a huge fuss at its nest as we both untangled our hair and stood up to run toward the direction of home.

I can even smell the grass, the flowers, and the water still today in that memory.  I can close my eyes and feel her soft hair as I unwound it from my own.  My skin can feel the warmth of the breath as she giggled close to my face.  My ears still hear the giggles too–the giggles that I can no longer hear from the other side of me.  We were so much like two sides of a coin.  And I’m disheartened to admit that perhaps her side of the coin has sat too long face down in the dark…

Last night I was there again.  It feels like I will be in a period of high activity again, as the dream world only pulls me in when something exciting is going on where I need to be a cognizant and decision making participant.

So when I fell asleep in my world and woke up in this other world, a couple of days had passed from when we camped at the end of the mountains.  Lyor, Relic, and I were standing there in awe staring upward at the entrance of the Galios Forest.  Being not of this world, I, of course, had never heard of this place.  Lyor filled me in that the place was held in great mystery and folklore surrounding this purportedly enchanted forest.

First, the dryads who lived here he said were known because many travelers who wandered in the forest with ill intent or less than savory souls were often said to never come out or come out with strange afflictions.

“My family originally came from here, and that is why my Uncle still lives here.  My great-great grandfather fell in love with a dryad here, and they bonded and had twelve children during the course of his life.  My great-great grandmother, of course, lived much longer, but she never bonded with another man or had any other children.  Many of the women in our family are born dryads, which is why you may have noticed in Jalot that sometimes babies mysteriously disappeared after being born.  And all of those were girls.  This is because once it was discovered that they were dryads, they were always brought back here to live.”  Lyor explained to us as we walked into the forest together.

“A cold mountain climate is no place for a dryad, and it is better for them to raise their own kind.”

I nodded while listening and moving forward.  My eyes drifting to Relic who seemed entirely fascinated with the strong auras and powers that emanated from this place.  As an elemental mage, I could easily trace the aura to natural ties.  But I looked up as I was sensing that there was more here than just Dryads with elemental signatures.

The sun made my eyes squint as it came through some tree branches.  I looked up and to my left as I noticed the movement in the branches of something moving along with us.  Lyor was oblivious to this movement–even the most trained of hunters would be.  I could only sense it because of my Welsh witch bloodline from my mother’s side that tied me so closely to nature.

I wondered if Lyor’s family that lived here knew of the other dwellers that lived here or if they lived in ignorance of their neighbors, one of which was gliding along through the forest with us.  But I said nothing and moved forward, because it was obvious it had no intention of harming or thwarting our progress.  It seemed just curious.

My gaze went back down to Relic.  He was looking right at it as it moved with us.  I smiled.  Between my genetic line and Jagger’s, whatever his might have been, the boy would be extremely gifted at things most men could not even start to comprehend.  I placed my left hand gently on his shoulder as we walked.  When he turned to look at me, I put my right index finger up to my lips telling him to not speak of what he saw.  Relic nodded his understanding, and then his eyes went forward to the path to see where we were headed.

I watched him a while longer.  The way the sunrays hit his light brown hair showing off the red highlights in it.  His handsome eyes were so similar to his father’s leonine eyes, golden and orange, but not quite identical like Kendra’s are.  Instead, Relic’s eyes were flecked with a little green around the outside edges of the iris.  He was tall and slender for a ten-year-old boy, but there were definitely defined muscles in his arms, back, and legs where his training with his father was evident.  His skin was not quite as tan as Jagger’s, but still not quite as pale as mine.  He was keen and his diction amazed most adults.  His voice was firm, but never unfriendly or harsh.  I smiled without realizing it.

“Here we are.”  Lyor said aloud.  I broke out of my daydreaming and looked where Lyor had pointed.  Down the path about 500 feet was a fork in the road.  A man that resembled an elf, perhaps a half-elf, was climbing down from a tree in the fork.  He was dressed in tanned brown hides with leaves sewn into the material in a scattered fashion to help him camouflage in the forest.  He carried a magnificent curved longbow on his back with arrows, and he moved toward us with a huge smile on this thin lips.

Relic’s eyes widened for he had not seen elves yet nor any variations of elves.  Miras and Jalot were human based villages, except for the dryads in Jalot that of course were whisked away as babies before anyone could see them.  “Someone you know?”  I asked Lyor.

The young man nodded, “Yes, this is my fourth cousin, Tahlther.  His father was an elf and his mother a dryad, one of my third cousins.”

“Lyor!  Nae saian luume’!  We received word yesterday, and we were about ready to have the scouting parties out to find you.”  Tahlther embraced Lyor and then turned to look at us, first his eyes settled upon me.  Most women might be embarrassed by the way the young elf looked me over, but you know I don’t mind that sort of thing at all.

So instead, I just stood there and smiled while he drank his eyes full, and then his eyes settled back to mine.  “Lle naa vanima.”  He whispered as he reached out his hand to mine, placing a gentle and respectful kiss upon the back of my hand.

“Diola lle.”  I responded with a touch of pink lightly coming to my cheeks.  At this point in my life, I wasn’t sure if the blushing I did when someone complimented my physical beauty was because I forced it subconsciously from doing it so much in the past or because it was natural.  I hadn’t been with a man in two years in this world.  So even though I really detested elves, this one was appealing.  I assured myself that it must be the dryad blood in him that made him more appealing to me.

He smiled with a slightly surprised expression because not only had I understood him, but I could also speak Elvish.  I always took a great deal of pride of speaking languages that I learn the way the natives speak them.  It is respectful to do so, and it takes more talent and attention to do so.

After he released my hand he looked toward Relic, and he bowed very low to my son, which I thought odd.  Elves, at least the elves of my world, did not bow to non-Elven leaders or royalty.  Respect them yes, but bow to them and particularly that low–that was unheard of.  But yet here was this elf bowing to my son, a commoner by all rights in this world.  At least, so I presumed.

“We have waited for you for such a long time.”  He said as he came out of the bow and fixed his gaze upon Relic.  “You can breathe easy now, for here you will be safe to grow and learn until you become a man.  But come now!”  Tahlther turned and began to walk down to the fork he came from in the road taking the road to the right.  “We have food and baths and clean clothes awaiting all three of you.  Your journey has been long, and you are weary even if you don’t say so!”

[[To be continued...]]

It was last night that he came to me again.  Rather I should say that I journeyed to him, which is probably more appropriate.  Whom you might ask?  My son, Relic, of course.  This terrible place that I sometimes find myself while dreaming in my world always seems to be in the middle of some terrible strife.  This time, the strife is beginning to look like it is centered on my son, Relic, and me.

When I woke up into my dream world tonight, I found myself sitting in the village of Jalot.  Now this was not your typical village, because it was inside a myriad of caves, caverns, and tunnels in the mountains.  Each family had its own “cave,” which they viewed as homes.  But everyone in the community pitched in to grow things to eat as a whole.  While the weather outside the mountains was awful and winter over eighty percent of the year, inside the caverns were “hot spots” where things could actually grow and flourish all year long.  We even had warm springs in which to bathe, which given my propensity for cleanliness is a delightful thing.

This day, I found myself in a neighbors cave showing her how to preserve her herbs.  They were great at cultivating, but they lacked the knowledge I had in my world for preserving foods, especially herbs that is one of my specialties.  So I shared what knowledge I could that didn’t make me seem to outlandish or alien to these rustic people.  My neighbor’s name was Tissa, and she was a mother of two boys.  Her youngest boy was Relic’s age, so they often played together as was the case today.

“Tissa, I do believe you’ve made enough soup here to feed the entire village.”  I joked with her stirring the pot and breathing the aroma in deeply.

“Well, I was hoping you and Relic would stay for dinner with Vert gone.”  She answered.  Vert is Tissa’s husband, and he is one of the scouts who actually gets to leave the village and forage for various things as well as bring back news of the outside world if it encroaches too closely to Jalot.  He had just left this morning for his next tour of duty–well, that’s what I call them.  But being they don’t have the military background I have with the Brotherhood of Darkness, they don’t use such terms.

“Thank you, Tissa.  We’d love that.”  I answered truthfully.  It got quite lonely in that world without Jagger or even that goofy blue-haired Ao that Jagger killed.  While I loved my son dearly, a son simply doesn’t replace connecting in some way with another adult.  “Tomorrow night you all can come over to our home to eat.”  I offered in return.

Tissa smiled at me and was about to say something when her oldest boy, Micar, came bursting through the canvas doorway.  “Momma!  Momma!  Something is happening to Relic!”  The pre-teen boy’s eyes were wide and he was as white as a ghost was.

In a heartbeat, I was there beside the boy, “Take me to him, Micar.”  I insisted.  His mother nodded for him to do as I had asked, and I followed him through the tunnels of Jalot until we reached an area that the children of the village usually played in because of the great acoustics (for echoes) and space in the cavern.  There in the center of the cavern was Tissa’s youngest boy, Dirk, suspended in the air with the magical energies leading me to the source–RELIC!

“Oh my heavens!”  I responded.  “Relic, Relic, let Dirk down easily and then stop that.”  I tried to keep a calm voice and not yell.

The boy had magical energies since the day he was born, but he had never shown any abilities or usage of his powers before.  For a second, I was very thankful we were many feet within the earth inside layers of rock, because I knew it would buffer the magic traces that exuded from Relic.  This was also quite possibly the reason Jagger had this place reserved for us as an emergency backup from when we lived in Miras.

Relic didn’t seem like he was doing it out of malice or jealousy.  Instead, it just appeared that he was doing it more out of curiosity.  In a calm, quiet demeanor, much like his father, he nodded and lowered Dirk to the ground.  Then he slowly pulled his magical energies back to himself as though he were drawing in a fishing line with grace and ease.

I finally exhaled the breath I had been holding and went to put my arms around Relic.  Dirk seemed fine, but quite taken aback by this odd display.  No one in Jalot had magical powers, so they did not know how to react to such a happening.  The elder of the village, Ustimo, happened around the corner into the cavern.  He didn’t seem surprised or shocked upon hearing what happened from the others.  Instead, he maintained calm and order and sent everyone to their homes.

Once everyone had left the cavern and just Relic and I were standing there, Ustimo approached us.  His gentle brown eyes looked upon us with a smile, but still there was pity there in them for us.  I wondered what he knew that we didn’t yet know.

With a heavy sigh, he spoke to us.  “You have been with us two years now, and I knew this day would come.  Gorland’s armies are too close to us now, and they would have been able to feel that disturbance though slight.  They will be here in two days.  You must go with my son, Lyor, as he is ready to take you to your next place to live with my brother Umil deep in the Galios Forest.  Men do not travel freely there, because they fear the dryads that live there.  But I have a feeling you know dryads, and realize how much more protection they can offer you now that I cannot.”

His knowing look gave me chills.  How could he know about what I know?  I knew of dryads in my own world, and I hadn’t even realized they existed here in this place where science fiction met fantasy.  The dryads in my world contained magical powers that would easily throw off anyone searching for Relic.  Now that he discovered he had powers, it was not wise to make him repress the use of his magic since doing so could destroy him.  He would have to have a place where he could practice it undetected, and a young boy amidst magical dryads would be just the place.

I didn’t want to leave these people behind.  My head replayed the stories of what had happened in Miras, and I envisioned the fate of Tissa, her husband, and her boys.  I envisioned the fate of Ustimo and his wife and children and grandchildren.

I realized his son, Lyor, would be the only one to live to carry on his family.  In this split second realization, a tear rolled down my cheek.  Ustima knew all along that this day would come.  He knew by taking us in he would sacrifice himself and his people.  Why?  What was so special about Relic and me?  I wanted to ask him, but I could tell there wasn’t time for such things.  So instead, I just nodded with a dumbfounded expression and turned to pack lightly some things to carry for our next journey.

Relic was confused and kept asking me why we had to leave and apologizing if what he did was wrong while I packed.  So I stopped packing long enough to embrace the boy.

I cupped his chin under my hand and kneeled down to look him in the eyes.  “Relic, you have done no wrong, my son.  You are growing and learning the extent of what you are capable of doing.  It is natural for people like us.  And we are moving so you can be in a place where you can continue to learn and grow.  Someday, Relic, some day you will have to repay the people of this world for their sacrifice to you.  Someday, Relic, you must grow up to lead people like the Jalots into lives of freedom and hope and happiness.”

He nodded accepting what I was telling him, even if he did not yet understand the extent of the underlying meaning in the words that I spoke to him.  I knew that once we arrived in the Galios Forest, I would have to do more than train Relic to wield magic properly.  I would need to teach him to be the greatest strategist and leader that ever walked these lands so that he and any children he might bring into this world did not have to live under the same strife to which he was born and raised.

In a few hours, we were packed and without even getting to say goodbye to anyone, Lyor led us out of the tunnels behind the mountain and around toward the rocky crags against the ocean.  We would travel south down those crags for two days until we reached a small grove.  On that second night, we made camp and sat down to talk after eating.  It was then that I felt a stabbing pain in my chest.  Lyor looked up toward the mountain, and I felt that terrible feeling I felt each time Caruse used his magic.

I was able to weep openly only because Relic was asleep and I knew he would not see me.  I was so terrified of the power Caruse wielded, because I knew that I was no match against it.  For the first time in my life either here or in my real world, I found someone that could easily overcome my powers.  And that was a harsh realization for the woman who always had it all.

Lyor did not cry, though he knew what happened up there in Jalot.  He merely exhaled and shifted his position as if to be alone with his thoughts for a while before he slept.  I did not sleep well that night, but instead stared off into the distance at the mountains until a few hours before dawn when I finally fell asleep in the dream world and woke back up in my own.