“A siege of Erisdale to cover for an assassination attempt on Princess Janize,” said Frances. Her brow furrowed, she drummed her hands on her dining room table. “I know why you’re suggesting it.”
“But you don’t like it?” Elizabeth asked, her smile not fading, but her eyebrow did rise. “You know what’s at stake.”
“I do wish you could both tell us what is at stake,” said Ayax, crossing her arms.
Martin and Ginger both nodded. The group were in Frances’s home, which they’d all agreed was perhaps the most comfortable of all of theirs. Not that their other residences in Athelda-Aoun weren’t livable, but Frances’s was perhaps the best furnished, mostly thanks to Timur.
“I love this tea set by the way, Timur,” said Ginger, raising her pine-patterned green-streaked cup. “Where did you get this one?”
“Would you believe that I picked it up at the market before we left to save Morgan?” Timur asked, grinning ear to ear.
“I do. We have been getting some very interesting items in market.” Martin leaned onto his elbows. “But back to the topic, why don’t you like it, Frances? I think it has merit. We do need to take Princess Janize out before she gets an heir.”
“Speaking of that, my first concern is what would we do if she is pregnant, or has a child?” Frances asked.
Silence reigned around the table.
“We don’t kill children,” said Elizabeth.
“I hate to say this, but that child will always be a rival to King Jerome and Queen Forowena’s heir or heirs,” said Timur. He raised his hands. “Not that I’m advocating for it! I’m just…well, it’s a problem.”
“We could capture the child,” said Ginger. “It could live well and healthily, we’d just need to watch the child.”
“But I suppose…we would have to execute the plan if she’s pregnant,” said Martin, wincing.
Frances coughed. “We can put that particular discussion on hold until we find out more, but there’s another thing we need to worry about. The Lightning Battalion is actually a division now, but we have orders to defend Athelda Aoun and Kairon-Aoun. You wouldn’t be able to take our entire force. What are you bringing?”
“We’re a division in strength now, numbering twelve battalions of roughly five hundred to eight hundred each. I plan to take five battalions of veterans to Erisdale, roughly three thousand soldiers.”
“And leave only one of our veteran battalions here?” Ginger stammered. “Yeah you’re leaving the other seven battalions in Athelda-Aoun, but all but one of them are blooded, not battle hardened.”
Elizabeth was about to speak, but Frances cut in. “Actually I agree with Elizabeth here. From what she and I were told, we can’t risk this operation failing.” Frances frowned. “But you can’t encircle the city with just that number of soldiers. Who else is being involved?”
“Queen Forowena assigned me fifteen thousand soldiers, a combination of veteran and rookie regiments from different garrisons and from her main army. I’m…” Elizabeth shrugged, smiling sheepishly. “I got promoted to general.”
Frances stared and immediately wrapped her friend in a hug. “Oh my gosh, that’s so cool!”
“Congratulations!” Timur exclaimed.
Martin clapped Elizabeth on the back. “That’s awesome!”
“General Elizabeth has a nice ring to that,” said Ginger, smiling.
Ayax didn’t say anything. She just laced her fingers with Elizabeth’s and squeezed.
“Thanks everybody! It’s a lot of pressure, but thanks to my promotion, I can request for more soldiers and Otherworlders. We’ll have Jessica with us along with Ayax, so that gives us two powerful mages,” said Elizabeth.
“Yeah, with that many soldiers, there’s a good chance we’ll succeed,” said Martin.
“Erisdale’s population might help garrison the city, though,” pointed out Ginger. “The besieged civilians don’t care much about politics. They just care about their homes and who is attacking them.”
“But then again, our objective is not to capture Erisdale, it’s just to kill Princess Janize,” said Martin. He grimaced. “I’m guessing the reason for the urgency is related to the Command Level stuff?”
Frances and Elizabeth exchanged a glance and nodded.
“I have a feeling I really don’t want to know about that secret,” said Ginger, crossing her arms.
Elizabeth winced. “Anyway, are there any more questions?”
Her friends shook their heads at first, then Ayax stopped and raised her hand.
“Sorry Liz, it’s not a question for you, but I was wondering, where’s Morgan by the way? I can’t imagine she’s asleep this early,” said the troll.
“Ah, Morgan’s with Renia for her first appointment,” said Frances.
Martin pursed his lips. “Frances, I trust you, but I’m worried. Can Renia do this?”
“She did say she could,” said Ayax. “I do share your worries, though, Martin.”
Frances finished her cup and set it down with a clink. “Maybe it might turn out badly, but Renia is Morgan’s mother. She should have been doing this in the first place.”
Timur glanced at his girlfriend. “Frances, why do you sound like you want Renia to reveal her true identity to Morgan?”
“Well, because I do, Timur.” Pinching the bridge of her nose, Frances tried to sort through what she felt. “I just…I’m still not sure if it’s a good idea for her to stay with us. I…I nearly hurt her really badly today, Timur.”
“But you saved her,” said the prince.
“Yes, but now she’s got this enigmatic wand who told us nothing about how song magic works, even though it was wielded by Alavari who cast song magic,” said Frances. Groaning, she crossed her arms and forced herself to exhale slowly. “Sorry, I’m just getting a little frustrated. A year of research, of reading, and we’ve learned a lot about what song magic isn’t, but even those in the past didn’t seem to know.”
Elizabeth sighed. “It does make sense, though. I mean, if they knew how to replicate song magic consistently, we would have seen a lot more examples.”
“Ugh, damn that wand. Ivy’s Sting was right, it’s a rotten piece of driftwood,” said Frances.
Timur squeezed Frances’s arm. “You’ll get it, Frances, just like how you’re getting Morgan to like you.”
“Thanks, dear, but she doesn’t like me, Timur,” said Frances, shaking her head.
The prince frowned. “Why do you say that? She seems to listen to you and do what you say, or at least try to. Additionally, I think you’re really able to read her.”
“Timur, I’m pretty sure that’s one reason she doesn’t like me,” said Frances.
“Do you like Morgan, Frances?” Ginger asked, arching an eyebrow.
Frances froze, unable to hide the panic that spread across her face, especially as Timur’s eyes widened.
“Sorry, I said too much,” Ginger stammered.
“Ginger, it’s fine. Timur, it’s…it’s not…it’s complicated,” Frances pleaded.
Her prince took a breath, but his eyes had narrowed and a look of confusion had taken over his features. “Can you explain now or are you not sure?”
“I don’t know how to explain it, but Morgan just puts me on edge. It’s not her magic, or even her lack of control. I just…” Frances swallowed, trying to remember what she felt, especially when she’d had to be stern with Morgan, and how her tone just seemed to tax her patience. How she’d had to watch the child, and at times, fight to get in a word edgewise.
“She’s exhausting to teach, Timur. She suspects me, doesn’t trust me, and doesn’t want to be taught on anybody’s terms but hers. I feel like I’m fighting a lot,” said Frances.
“But she listens to Timur?” Ayax asked, frowning.
When the pair nodded, Martin asked, “Then why don’t you ask Morgan to listen to Frances, Timur? Or ask her to watch her tone?”
“Well…I…” Timur’s voice trailed off and he winced. “Ah, shoot. I’ve been completely unhelpful with that haven’t I?”
“It’s not your fault, Timur,” said Frances, bowing her head. “I think I’m just too used to teaching Hattie.”
“No, I should talk to Morgan, and ask her to work with you instead of against you. She shouldn’t be treating you like this,” said Timur, in a firm tone. He squeezed her arm again. “We’re a team, she can’t defy you, while listening only to me.”
Frances managed a smile. “Thanks, dear.”
Elizabeth smiled as well. “Well, who knows. Maybe Morgan’s appointment with Renia will help out with her attitude issues.
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When Morgan had shown up to her appointment, she’d been wary.
There was nothing in Renia’s office that would put her on edge. Some shelves, a desk, several notebooks and papers, and oddly enough, a lot of toys and pillows sitting on a shelf near arms reach.
No, the toys were actually kind of cute, particularly the big grey plush with what looked like a long nose and big ears. Something about the sewn on smile and big brown glass eyes made it look absolutely adorable. Not that Morgan would ever admit it.
“Frances tells me that’s an elephant, an animal that doesn’t seem to exist in Durannon, or at least on this continent,” said Renia.
Morgan narrowed her eyes at the harpy. “So she made this toy?”
“Yes. It’s one of many that she, Elizabeth and some of the other Otherworlders like Jessica made for those who visit my office,” said Renia.
Morgan growled. “I don’t need to be here.”
“Why don’t you need to be here, Morgan?” Renia asked.
The harpy-troll grimaced. Okay so she wasn’t being strictly honest. But she couldn’t really be honest anyway. She was a monster and she couldn’t let anybody that out. Hattie hadn’t told anybody, but that was just her.
“I don’t see how talking is going to help,” said Morgan. “It’s just words.”
Renia nodded. “We often talk or say a lot of things that mean nothing. What we are doing here, in this room, is trying to use words to communicate the pain that’s inside of us, and to try to heal from it.”
“Like that would work,” said Morgan.
“Maybe it won’t, but we both know you’ve endured a lot, Morgan, and from my experience, folk feel better if they can get that off their chest. Someone who wouldn’t tell anybody what they’d been through and can offer a different way of looking at what happened,” said Renia.
Morgan frowned. “You haven’t been through what I have. How could you possibly help me?”
“That’s true. I haven’t been through what you have, but I’ve heard the pain of many people and so I can give you advice from that experience,” said Renia.
A thought popped into Morgan’s head, well, more of a question she’d always had. It was about how Frances, somehow always seemed to have a very good guess as to what Morgan was thinking, or feeling. She put that aside, but kept that thought at the back of her mind.
“So what do you want me to do?” Morgan asked.
Renia opened her mouth, closed it and then said, “I’d like you to use this time to try to work through what you’ve gone through.”
“Yeah but how do I do that?” the harpy-troll asked.
“I don’t necessarily want to dictate how you should do that, Morgan. This isn’t like what happened when you were imprisoned. You have a choice here about what you want to talk about, and how to approach your healing.”
“Yeah, but my lack of control means I didn’t have a choice about being here,” Morgan muttered.
“You do want better control over your magic, though?” Renia asked.
“Well yes and…I think it’s getting better. Frances helps a bit…well, a lot. I mean, it’s kinda creepy how she just seems to read my mind, but I…I feel a little better.” Morgan blinked. Did she just say the Stormcaller had helped her? Why did she say that? She looked up to find that a strange look had flashed over Renia’s face. “You know something, don’t you?”
Renia took a breath and smiled. “Without disclosing anything private, yes. I do know why Frances seems to be able to understand you. In fact, I’d hoped that would be the case when I recommended she take care of you for the time being.”
“Why does she—oh, nevermind.”
Renia chuckled. “If you’re curious to know, you can ask Frances, politely. It’s something quite private to her.”
Morgan snorted. “Would she tell me?”
“When she’s ready. Privacy is something you have respect, Morgan. It’s why I’m not just asking you what happened in that prison,” said Renia, smiling a little archly.
Morgan nodded, feeling a bit embarrassed. That made sense and perhaps she’d been a bit…cruel to Frances.
If she was being honest she wasn’t entirely sure as to why. The woman seemed to be able to help her control her magic like nobody ever had before.
How would she react, though, if she found out that Morgan was a monster?
“Renia, I don’t have to tell you everything, right?” Morgan asked.
“Of course not. The more you tell me, the more it will likely help, but some things are too painful to tell. Moreover, sometimes you feel different levels of comfort with different people. You might tell me something you might not tell your uncle, that you might not tell Frances,” said Renia.
“Like what?” Morgan asked, frowning.
“Well, say undergarments and periods. You wouldn’t discuss undergarments with your uncle would you?” Renia asked.
Morgan shook her head. “No. Though, I didn’t need to talk to Frances about it either. I mean…she kinda had everything ready for me.” For before Morgan had come to her appointment, Frances had taken her aside and provided her with pretty much everything she’d needed, and shown her where she’d kept the necessary supplies. She swallowed. “It was kind of nice.”
“Mm hmm.” Renia smiled. “I know you don’t like Frances right now, Morgan, but if you let her show you, you’ll find she’s a wonderful person to have as a friend and as a teacher.”
Morgan nodded. As much as she hated the thought of her uncle with a human, she couldn’t deny that the Stormcaller seemed to be a pretty good teacher. She’d seen how her fellow apprentice, Hattie, just seemed to wait on her every word.
The smiles the two seemed to share pricked Morgan’s heart. A deep yearning burned that she wanted to deny and yet couldn’t. She would like to have that, but Frances was a human woman. A human mage that was hiding something. Would that secret hurt her?
“So, returning to our session, where do you want to start? How do you feel, or perhaps what happened?” Renia asked.
Morgan took a deep breath. Was this really going to work?
Well Renia seemed nice, and unabashedly so. Maybe she could be trusted.
“I’ll…I’ll talk a little about what happened.”
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Landing on the doorstep to Frances’s house, Morgan gave her wings a gentle ruffle and knocked on the door.
Timur opened the door. “Hey. How did it go?”
The harpy-troll let out a groan. “Tiring.”
Her uncle smiled sadly and let her in. “Yeah. That was what I felt after my first session.”
“You talked to Renia as well?” Morgan asked, kicking off her shoes.
“Yes. My father…Your grandfather instilled some notions in me that were harming me,” said Timur. He winced. “I’ll tell you about it later okay?”
“Yeah. We just…we just talked about what happened. Very general terms,” said Morgan.
“And do you feel better?” Timur asked, as they walked toward the kitchen.
The harpy-troll paused. Did she feel better? She hadn’t said much and she hadn’t wanted to talk about her feelings about what happened, so Renia had refrained from prodding.
She did feel better, though, she wasn’t sure how to describe how she felt better or why she did. Still, she nodded, and watched her uncle light up with a smile.
“That’s good. Um, there’s one more thing, Morgan.” Timur glanced over his shoulder before looking back at her. “Morgan, I know you don’t like Frances, but can you please try to treat her with respect?”
Morgan resisted the urge to make a sour face, and she didn’t do it just for her uncle.
“I’ll try. I really want to,” she said. “She’s…she’s been helping me. Renia helped me see that.”
“Oh. She did? How…how did she, if you don’t mind sharing?” Timur asked.
The harpy-troll averted her gaze. “Well, she just made me think a little. I just…” Morgan crossed her arms. “I know why you trust her uncle. She saved your life so many times, but she’s a human. Why did you fall in love with a human of all things?”
“Well, because she’s not a thing. She’s Frances.” Timur pursed his lips. “It’s a little hard to describe what romantic love feels, but as we learnt more about each other, as we helped each other more…it just became so lovely to be beside her. We don’t agree on everything, but the moments we have when we’re just happy to be with each other are so numerous we can’t get enough of it.”
“But…she’s a human, how did you get over that?” Morgan asked.
Timur frowned. “I…that’s a good question. I suppose the best way I can say is that at some point, I stopped really thinking that humans are so different from Alavari. They are different but…well, we’re just as capable of horrible things.”
“I know. I…I’m still scared, uncle.”
Morgan blinked as Timur gave her a quick hug, she stiffened, only to feel some of the tension, the tightness between her shoulders start to release.
“I’m sorry, dear,” he said, letting go of her at just the right time. Uncle Timur was usually quite good at that.
“I know, uncle.” She sighed. “Where’s Frances anyway?”
Timur looked up the stairs and frowned. “Well, you remember that you gave Lightbreaker to Frances before you left?”
“Yeah, she said something about wanting to put down some ground rules,” said Morgan. Her wand hadn’t actually said anything to her after she’d gotten it back. In fact it’d remained very quiet. “What do ground rules mean?”
“It’s a human expression meaning to set down some boundaries,” said Timur. “She and Ivy’s Sting are still worried Lightbreaker might hurt you.”
Morgan frowned. “It’s my wand, though.”
“They’re worried it’ll say something hurtful to your feelings or something particularly insensitive.”
The harpy-troll bowed her head. “She’s worried I’m going to lose control.”
Her uncle bent down to meet her eyes. “No. We don’t want Lightbreaker making you lose control. And we don’t want an ancient, enigmatic and possibly out of touch wand with a penchant for headstrong choices and being aggressive toward beginner mages to hurt you.”
“Oh…wait, has she and Ivy been doing this all while I was having my appointment?” Morgan asked.
“No, Frances has been cooking your dinner too, but it has been a while—”
Something heavy slammed open. Morgan jumped, hovering in the air. Embarrassed, she turned to her uncle to find that he’d also started. He was frowning, his tail flicking nervously.
“Frances, are you alright? How can I help?” he called.
Footsteps stomped down the stairs and Frances came into view.
Lightbreaker was in one hand, her own wand Ivy’s Sting was in the other. What drew both Alavari’s attention however was the look on Frances’s face. What was normally a contemplative, or sometimes smiling face showed only a twisted, glowering fury that looked very out of place on the small woman.
“Timur, we need to visit my mother and call your sister. I found something that you are not going to like at all.”
“Oh? When are we—”
“Now, Morgan—” Frances’s expression froze as she took in Morgan’s wide-eyed, fearful face and she forced herself to close her eyes and take a deep breath. “Morgan, I’m sorry for scaring you. I’m not angry at you or your uncle. I found something very worrying from your wand.”
“It’s not going to hurt me, is it?” Morgan stammered.
“What? No. Lightbreaker isn’t going to try to hurt you. It really doesn’t want to hurt you. It just told me something I’m not happy about at all,” said Frances. She paused and handed the wand back to Morgan, handle first. The harpy-troll took it hesitantly.
Your master is rather…determined, and scary, my wielder, said Lightbreaker. And also very concerned about your wellbeing.
Morgan glanced back at Frances, who looked a lot calmer now, but was also squeezing her uncle’s hand.
“Morgan, I’m…I’m really sorry that I showed you that. I do…I do get angry and I sometimes struggle with my anger as well,” said Frances, sighing.
That made the harpy-troll blink. “You do?” She wouldn’t have believed that until she’d seen Frances today. After all, Morgan knew she’d been trying to provoke and annoy Frances. Yet the woman had never lost her temper.
Frances allowed a wan, sad smile to show, and nodded. “Still, that’s no excuse.”
Morgan nodded. It wasn’t an excuse, but…she was glad Frances was acknowledging that she scared her. It was a good feeling.
It did beg one question, though.
“Frances, what…what did you find out?” Morgan asked, glancing at Lightbreaker.
Frances took a deep breath. “I found out that Archmage Star the Glimmering Light assassinated Queen Ulania, your grandmother.”
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A few moments ago…
Frances glared at the wand, awaiting its response.
So in short, Frances, you wish me to consider the feelings of my wielder more carefully and be more open with her?
“Yes,” said Frances. She gently touched her own wand as she did so. “It’s why we want to know why you chose Morgan. I know you wands all have secrets, and I understand that, but there is such a thing as holding onto a secret for too long.”
Then why have you not told my wielder about yours?
A tremor ran through Frances and she let go of Lightbreaker.
“That…” Frances pinched the bridge of her nose. She still wasn’t sure what made herself so scared about telling Morgan. She’d told lots of her friends about the people that had abused her and that was now seven years ago.
Ivy’s Sting spoke up in a loud, chiding tone. That is not your business, Lightbreaker.
Then I do not see why I should not hold onto my own secrets.
Even when they hurt or endanger your wielder?
My previous wielders would not prefer their secrets to have been told to their future ones.
We are not talking about long dead ghosts! Their secrets cannot possibly impact the present day!
What if I told you that Archmage Star assassinated Queen Ulania?
Frances didn’t recall the name at first. She did, however, feel Ivy Sting’s horror and as she tried to focus on the name, she sat up straight. “She did what?”
I have said far too much.
Frances grabbed the wand. “Lightbreaker, if Archmage Star killed Queen Ulania, that might tell us why this war started in the first place and where the source of Thorgoth’s power comes from!”
The wand didn’t reply. Frances, her fingers tight around the wand, stood up. “Fine! If you have nothing to say about it, then we’ll have to talk to my mother.”