Chapter 8

“What do you mean you don’t want it?” The medium sized troll was aghast.

Roden sighed, “I already explained this to Pa’teem here. I don’t have fire magic anymore, so the enchantment doesn’t do me any good.”

The troll grumbled to himself as the larger one interjected, “well that der puts us in a bit of a pickle, huh?”

“Yeah I’m sorry about that, I suppose it's already paid for so at least it's not hurting your pocket …”

Roden paused for effect then added, “I supposed I can sell it to recoup some losses.”

Pa’t’s eyes flared bright, but his mouth was quickly covered by the pint sized Eem.

“Well hang on, let’s not get hasty. That der enchantment is a one of a kind, Enchanting Enchanters Applicable Applicators original piece. I couldn’t settle for someone else having it in their store.”

Roden hoped that would be the troll’s response, but he was never really sure about Pa’teem.

“Oh, yeah I can see how that might be a bit unsavory. Do you have a suggestion?”

“Well I suppose we could do for a trade, but I don’t have any Opal steel pieces here. That stuff is mighty rare.”

Roden thought on it, “a trade huh? Hmmmmm...”

As Roden pondered his options he felt Errrkkkk’s eyes boring a hole through him.

“What?”

“You can’t trade that Opal steel, cacaw.”

Roden furrowed his brow, “why not?”

“It’s sentimental, cacaw.”

‘Crap, he had a point…’

“Alright, fair enough.”

Roden turned back to Pa’t, “do you have any way to make that enchantment lightning or storm themed?”

Before the medium troll could respond Pa’teem spoke, while Eem held Pa’t back.

“I was thinking about dat. I had an idea about changing the healing from burning to coming into contact with say magical or magically created water. Would that be something helpful to ya?”

Roden cycled through his suite of spells and abilities in his mind. “Would a cloud count?”

Pa’teem though on it then looked at Pa’t, “I believe if the cloud were dense enough it could generate a healing effect.”

Riakon cut in, “could he jump in a lake and heal that way?”

Pa’teem shook his head, “no, the enchantment requires the medium to have some residual magic to power the healing factor.”

“What about ice, cacaw?”

All three trolls turned their heads up in thought then nodded, “I think we could stretch the enchantment to be able to siphon the magic from water in any state of matter, but it does require physical contact with whatever medium. So you would need to be in a cloud or touching water or ice.”

“I can work with that…By chance would you have something to mount it on. I’d rather not have to pierce my ear to make it work.”

Pa’teem laughed a bold belly laugh, “oh yeah I could seat it in a ring for ya.”

“Sold, any idea how long it will all take?”

The larger troll looked at the medium sized one who had calmed down to the point the little one had released them.

“I could have it done in a few hours.”

“Perfect! Riakon, handle the price.”

As Riakon haggled with the troll, Errrkkkk and Roden stepped outside the shop.

“Ya know, now might be a good time to stop at the Outpost and check the boards for anything interesting.”

Errrkkkk thought on the idea for a long moment, “do you really think you and Riakon can handle going out in the field, cacaw?”

“I figure we need to at some point. Even if we take something trivial it’ll go a long way to getting our confidence back up and we can get a better idea of our new teamwork.”

Once Riakon joined them they headed over to the Outpost where they were confronted with a strange occurrence. The clerk at the desk informed them they had a message from the Court Mage of Port Sept. He requested a meeting for three weeks from the day. The three men looked at each other, shrugged and accepted the meeting.

On their way back to the Silver Wind Inn, they mused about what the meeting could be about.

Riakon was clearly the most nervous for obvious reasons, but the time frame put the party at ease a bit. If it was something to do with their most recent mission, there would no doubt be more urgency.

When they arrived back at their villa, Miriana was in a tizzy.

“Boys! Come come, you have to see this!”

She ushered the men inside and aimed their attention at the window, or more accurately Errrkkkk’s little branch sitting in the window. Over the last week or so since Errrkkkk had purchased the wand of growth from Pa’teem, he had been casting the growth enchantment on the little branch everyday.

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The once little buds had grown into their own small branches giving it the appearance of a sapling tree instead of just a big twig.

The three men looked from Miriana to the plant and back again, none of them seeing anything out of the ordinary.

Miriana huffed and began to coax the plant with motherly words, “oh don’t be shy little guy. These are your friends. The ones who saved you.”

Errrkkkk stepped forward and knelt down next to his plant and started chirping in a quiet bird song. Only then did two slits on the trunk of the sapling split open revealing two small holes that held faint green lights giving the impression of pupils. A third split appeared beneath in a crude mouth. When the mouth opened a series of chirps and soft screechs emerged to Errrkkkk’s delight.

Riakon leaned over to the others, “what the hell is going on?”

Roden chuckled to himself, “Errrkkkk must have instilled birdfolk as the little guy’s primary language.”

Riakon looked confused, “how did he teach a plant language?”

Roden shook his head, “he didn’t teach it to him. I think he gave it to him through the spell he's been casting. Just like you are Grok’s handler. Errrkkkk is that little plant’s main person.

“Why would he have him learn a language no one speaks?” Riakon said still not getting it.

Errrkkkk glared at him, “so I finally have someone to talk to.”

Miriana clapped in her girlish way, “how wonderful! We have to mark it down as his birthday!”

Riakon laughed, “haha, yeah Errrkkkk you are the father!”

Roden laughed before he caught the reference from Riakon and couldn’t help, but question it.

‘How the fuck?...’He shook off the impossible thought and chopped it up to coincidence.

Miriana rubbed her hands together, “so what are you going to name him?”

Errrkkkk thought for a moment and let out a clipped chirp. When met with only blank stares, he rolled his eyes.

“His name is Branch.”

Miriana chuckled, “a little on the nose, but it's cute.”

“So how long until he’s up and walking about?” Riakon said, eyeing up Branch’s pot.

“I’m thinking he’ll be ready to go by the time we tackle your dragons, cacaw.”

Roden could feel Miriana’s eyes on the back of his neck. She definitely played up her motherly role around Errrkkkk and Riakon. When they had mentioned to her the nature of Riakon’s divine quest she put on a truly dramatic performance. Even at the mention of their quest she would glare at Roden to outwardly display her displeasure.

With the emergence of Branch as the newest addition to their growing family, Miriana demanded they hold a private birthday party for the little guy. She whipped together a home cooked meal and a fruitcake that was significantly more fruit than cake. Roden plucked out happy birthday on his instrument and everyone sang along to his surprise.

When all of the traditional festivities were done and everyone was preparing to head off to their rooms Miriana placed a hand on Roden’s arm grabbing his attention.

“Would you want to play a game of chess before bed? I could use a game or two to relax.”

Games of chess before bed had been their routine in Coastall so he was a little surprised they hadn’t continued it since then.

“That sounds great actually. Your moves always put me to sleep.”

Miriana swatted at him, “oh you don’t want to see me go on the offense.”

Roden raised an eyebrow, “bring it if you dare.”

They sat down at the table where Miriana had laid out their chess board from back home. She started with the white pieces and pushed her pawn two squares. Roden mirrored her, deciding he did want to see what she considered an offensive game. After a few more moves Roden was surprised to see her move her bishop completing the configuration of her pieces that was labeled the Italian game.

“Hey mom, what is this position called?” He said, gesturing to the board.

A small smile touched the corner of her mouth. They had an unspoken agreement to never discuss incriminating information unless they were in complete privacy. Which meant they hadn’t been able to discuss much of anything with Errrkkkk and Riakon always around.

“This setup is called the Eesil game after the island.”

Roden nodded, “Oh right, right.” He moved his bishop, changing the position to a Giuoco Piano. “What about now?”

“This is known as the Quiet variation.”

‘Hmmmm they kept the translated version…’

“Interesting how they name these things, no?” Roden hoped he was putting enough subtext in his word choice to pull any kind of information from her.

“It is an interesting thing, but don’t think I have forgotten. You just like playing the openings with cool sounding names, like the dragon or the lion.”

‘Oh shit! Those were the same as back home.’

“You got me there, but who hears the Dragon defense and doesn’t want to play it?”

She rolled her eyes, “such a boy thing to say.”

They played their game going move for move. Roden knew the positions well from either side, the opening being one of his favorites. However, after twenty or so moves he realized he was in a losing position. No great mistakes had been made on his part. Miriana had just calmly positioned her pieces to attack his castled king. Her finishing combination was a beautifully executed Greek Gift sacrifice that left Roden either mated or down a significant amount of material.

“Okay okay I resign. That was brutal. What’s that little maneuver called?”

Miriana smiled like a fox in the chicken coop, “oh son how have you forgotten? That is called Zamira’s Gift.”

Roden stared at her flatly, “you’re kidding.”

She shook her head, “no really. Not by choice of her clergy, but by reputation. Many early practitioners saw the sequence as too dangerous for beginners to learn so they named it after the Goddess of Death to scare them off, I suppose.”

“Wild business that is.”

“I think it’s a rather appropriate name actually. The uninitiated should always beware a storm at their door and probably shouldn’t accept any gifts they didn’t ask for unless they know what they are doing.”

Roden thought on her words, “that is actually pretty good, I suppose in that way it does fit nicely.”

“Not to mention when done properly the maneuver mimics a storm in motion. One minute the situation is calm and quiet and the next you are getting struck by a bolt of lightning.”

Roden chuckled, “yeah I’ll say. I think I was too busy looking at clouds to see that bit of lightning coming.”

“You know…as a Cleric of Zamira, you really should start thinking more in line with her teachings.”

Roden opened his mouth to respond, but realized he couldn’t. Even Roden’s memories were of little help on the topic.

“Mmmmhhhhmmmm, as I thought. You don’t even know her core philosophies, do you son?”

“Uhhhh…no…no I don’t, now that I think about it.”

“Tisk tisk, how shameful. The son of a—” Roden interrupted her melodramatic solilaque.

“Yeah yeah, I’m a bad cleric. Can you just help me out?”

Miriana huffed, “no fun, I’ve been working on that speech to chastise you.”

Roden rolled his eyes, “I’m sure you have, but I’d rather just get to it.”

“Fine.” She said pushing back from the table and standing. “Come with me.”

“W–what?! Now?!”

“Yes now, there are a lovely bunch of heavy clouds coming and I don’t want to miss them.”

Once outside and standing on the dock Miriana noticed Roden’s glare, “what now?”

“You planned this. You knew this would happen.”

Miriana pressed her lips together, “planned, yes, hoped, yes, knew, no…”She looked around before continuing. “I am not omniscient, none of the gods of Mir are, but you seem to keep forgetting Roden is my son.”

“Yeah you keep saying that, but how is that possible?”

Miriana closed her eyes for a moment and took a deep breath, “when a man and a woman love each other very—”

“Stop, obviously I understand that part…”

“Well that’s all there is to it.”

“I don’t buy it.”

Miriana looked between Roden and the dark blanket of clouds that hung in the air high above the ocean waters.

“Fine…I can tell you that being Miriana was what I wanted. At first being Miriana was my only plan. Unfortunately, that didn’t work out the way I had hoped. So I had to make some decisions…”

She trailed off, seemingly to gather her thoughts before continuing. Roden could tell in that moment she was working hard to avoid telling him too much.

“From what I could see at the time, I thought Mir might need a very specific hero someday who could—”

“Clean up your mess?”

She glared at him, “sure, for lack of a better more cordial way of saying it. A hero who could fix any problems I might have caused.”

“So how did you end up with Rolen?”

Miriana snorted, “oh that part was easy—”

“Ewww.”

She looked at him flatly, and a little embarrassed, “not what I meant. I had to choose Rolen. He was the being on this planet with the greatest connection to you and the others.”

Roden was taken aback, “why did that matter?”

“That I can’t explain for various reasons, but I can say…”

Roden noticed a far away look in her eyes, while she thought about her answer.

“I can say it was a pleasant experience.”

“Ewwww.”

“Not like that! I am talking about having a family. Rolen wasn’t interested in being a fulltime father and I wasn’t really interested in having a husband. So we made a deal.”

“Wait…So Rolen knows about you?”

Miriana nodded, “yes, he knows…some. Just like you I couldn’t tell him everything, but he was amiable to my conditions.”

“I don’t see why.”

“His reasons were always his own, but I imagine he thought of it as a way to make up for his past deeds in some way. He was the right hand of the Lich after all. No amount of water will ever wash away that amount of blood, but perhaps giving the world a hero who can save it will tip the scales a bit.”

“I can’t imagine he was too upset about dating a Goddess either.” Roden said under his breath with a half-smirk.

“You are terrible. Are you satisfied now? The storm is almost here.”

Roden waved her on, “yeah I’m good…for now.”