Suggested Listening

"Don't hurt them!" Elruin blurted out after Cali's declaration of having her siblings enslaved or executed. A moment later, she remembered her place and returned to passive language. "Please, I would prefer them not be harmed."

Shock took the smile off of Calenda's face. "What? Why!?"

"Because they're my family. I don't want you to hurt them." She wasn't educated enough in the ways of the world to know what 'slavery' or 'a judge' were, but she could guess it wasn't nice, either.

"I... but... they tried to feed you to morks..."

"I don't care, I don't want them hurt," Elruin said again. She put on her best 'serious' face, like she saw Mother do when it was extra important. The slender twelve year old girl accomplished little more than ineffectual pouting in the process.

"But..." Cali sighed. "Fine. I'm sure if you get famous, the bards will love this act of undeserved mercy; there are holy orders who've canonized people for less. But if they're staying here, then I have to insist you come with me. You're not safe here; their idiocy might be contagious."

"Okay," Elruin said. She planned to accept Cali's offer, anyway. Cali seemed nice, other than the stuff about killing her family. Plus, she was smart and knew more about magic than anyone Elruin ever met, even Kasa and Mother. Speaking of whom. "Can I go talk to Mother, first?"

"Depends." Cali turned her attentions back to Kasa. "Tell me, did your mother have anything to do with sending Ell into the wilderness?"

"N- no," Kasa kept her eyes down. "After Father was killed... I don't think she's thought of anything other than him since yesterday."

"Okay, Ell, go ahead and say goodbye to your mother." Cali watched Elruin run off out of earshot before she spoke again. "So if I get the picture right, your father dies, your mother's insensate, and the first thing that pops into your head is to start killing off your younger siblings? Are you sure you're not related to the royal family?"

"Don't answer that question." She interrupted after Kasa started to open her mouth. "In fact, just don't talk to me again ever."

Elruin, meanwhile, entered the door to her home for what promised to be the last time in a long time, perhaps forever. Inoin was already in the house, near Mother who sat facing away from the door. Inoin looked at her younger sister for a moment, but opted not say anything to the girl who'd returned from the wilderness alive.

"Mother?" Elruin asked. She waited for a moment, but Mother said nothing so she came closer. "Mother, I have to go away soon. Can I please speak to you first?"

Othsa seemed to shake herself out of her daze, at least for a moment to look at Elruin. Her eyes were sunken and red from crying. "Did you do all your chores?"

"Yes, my chores are finished." To Elruin's knowledge there was never a time she or anyone had all their chores finished, that was the life everyone lived on the farm.

"Okay, good." Othsa looked back toward the wall again. "Where are you going?"

"On a journey to the city." Or that's where Elruin guessed Cali lived.

"Right, Kasa told me about that. I thought you left, already."

This book was originally published on Royal Road. Check it out there for the real experience.

"No, but I'll be going soon," and not a lie told to Mother so far. "Can you tell me why Father said I wasn't his, now?"

Inoin gasped, and reached out to touch Mother's shoulder. "You don't have to..."

"I was younger, then. Old enough to know better, but I..." Othsa said, still looking forward instead of at the daughters positioned on either side of her. "He was in a group of four Reclaimers. He was my age, but he seemed so young, and he said... he said a bunch of lies, is what he said. He said he'd never leave, then said he'd come back for me. That's your real father, a liar and coward! Merat! I was so stupid! But Kalis forgave me, and we were happy, and now he's gone, too!"

"Oh." Elruin now had the answer to her question, for what little it was worth. Even she knew there was more to the story, but she could guess some and it didn't seem like would tell her the rest even if she knew. "Thank you, Mother."

Elruin left a still-crying Othsa behind and returned to where Cali was pacing near the gate. The other members of her family stayed back, watching but doing their best not to remind Calenda that they were still free.

"So," Cali said. "Did you get what you were looking for?"

Elruin couldn't find an answer to the question; she didn't know if there was an answer. For a moment, she thought about trying to go find Father's crossbow, but she couldn't think of a good excuse to do so. Besides, it was clear enough that the crossbow belonged to Father's real children, not her. She spent one more moment to look at the farm that could no longer be called her home. Cali was right; this place did stick of cow dung, and what she now knew was the acrid stench of burnt human flesh which made her eyes water. She would never forget either smell.

"We can go now." Not quite an answer to Cali's question, but it would have to do.

"Don't worry, once we're back on the open road, it'll all feel like a bad dream."

Not a minute after they left the farm, the gate slid closed behind her once again. This time, she knew they were abandoning her, but she had other things to think about. "Cali, may I ask you about that glowing trick you did at the gate?"

"Oh, that?" Cali kept walking as she spoke. "Nothing special about it, just a generic sort-of-illusion that almost any mage can learn to do. I can teach you it if you like, shouldn't take a Revealed mage more than a couple tries to learn. Then again, I've never met a mage who had a Revelation before learning these sorts of simple- Na entek!"

As Cali was talking, Elruin began going through the effort of emulating what she watched Cali do earlier. She sang to her power, drew it up and around here so that the energy matched the intonations of her Requiem. The power needed not go anywhere or do anything, so she was free to allow it to exist around her, building to a crescendo with her song.

"Stop!" Cali shouted.

Elruin obeyed, slowing her song and drawing the music back to herself. "Did I do it wrong?"

"Wrong?" Cali calmed her breathing. "No! You did it fine! It's just that, well, we draw out our element when we use that ability. With me, I just have to be careful the area around me doesn't get covered in dust and humidity. Fire mages have to be careful not to accidentally start small fires. Your version seems to drain light from the area around you, and I'd bet money there's some sort of magic-enhanced fear effect. Usually shadow magic is useful for stealth, but I'm sure everything in earshot felt your power. I think it scared them off, but we should get moving just in case."

After a few minutes of casual conversation, mostly Cali talking about her personal maid who did all the cooking in her home and the sheer pleasure of a well cooked meal after a few days of traveling the roads, Cali slowed and sighed. "Entek ne. Morons."

Elruin caught sight of it a moment later; a wagon had slid off the side of the road, while what appeared to be a woman waited nearby in a long, dirty dress. It was modest, well made, and probably worth something when clean. Far better than threadbare and patched clothes Elruin had grown accustomed to on the farm. It 'appeared' to be a woman, but Elruin's unnatural sight it was clear enough that this was a man- women had notable glow of life energy just behind the belly button than men lacked. True, that light wasn't present in children or the elderly, even if they were women, but children had a completely different sort of pattern, and the elderly were far more dim.

This was either an adult man masquerading as a woman, or some sort of weird magic Elruin knew nothing about. She also noticed that there were at least five other similar adult man lifesigns in the woods, but three of them seemed strange to her. Whatever they were was a little like a human, but also like something she'd never seen before.

"So," Cali looked at Elruin. "Does this look like the most obvious ambush in the world to you, too?"