As Risa opened the door to the home she had shared for over a decade with her Papa, she heard Sinta and Annika laughing as they discussed some part of Laszlo’s past.

“...so he seriously didn’t know what to do about that? Didn’t he have other fosters before you?” Sinta asked.

“I suppose they found homes before that happened to them. I was unlucky, I suppose. Or I guess he was the unlucky one,” she said with a laugh.

Risa closed the door quietly, but the breeze wafted through the house, carried upward by the chimney.

“We are at the table, Risa!” Sinta called out.

Risa took her shoes off and set them by the door. She walked into the kitchen and greeted both of the women at the table.

“I will return momentarily. I must change my clothes,” she said softly.

Once Risa had gone to her room, Annika looked over at Sinta. “I cannot imagine how hard this must be for the both of you. You’ve lost your husband, and she’s lost her Papa. I want you to know that I will make myself available for anything, should either of you need,” she said, taking Sinta’s hand in hers.

Sinta smiled and patted the girl’s hand. “I appreciate the offer, Annika. Don’t you have a husband or a family to get back to?” she asked quietly.

“No. I still live with my parents. While they would miss me, I think they’d understand, once they have the whole story. I will stay and help you two for as long as you need, Miss Sinta,” Annika said with a firm grip on Sinta’s hand.

“While I don’t think it will be any trouble, we should ask Risa. She does have some mighty big shoes to fill, after all. More tea?” she asked, receiving a nod.

**********

Risa folded the ceremonial robes up and put them in the chest, and looked around at her room. While nothing had changed, everything felt different. The painting she and Papa made when she turned twelve still hung on her wall, but it seemed almost alien, somehow. Like someone else had painted it. The trapdoor to the workshop in the corner of her room beckoned to her, like a siren to a sailor. The longer she stared at it, the stronger the desire to go down there and not return became.

After a time, she shook her head and put on a dress, and walked out to the kitchen table. Annika greeted her warmly, and Mama Sinta stood to give her a long hug.

A moment later, she sat down. Sinta poured her a cup of tea, and the trio talked well into the night.

***************

Time passed in a blur for Risa after her Papa’s death. Annika stayed to help her and Sinta deal with his passing and get life back into some semblance of normality. The pair developed a deep and abiding friendship during her stay, and eventually Sinta asked her if she wouldn’t mind living there, as there was one other occupant that she hadn’t met. Once Katira was introduced to her, she and Annika got along like ducks to water. Annika agreed to live with them, and took a cart back to her parents house and returned three weeks later, and moved herself in. Together with the rest of Blek, they built another addition to the small house, and the two became three once more.

Eventually, Summer ended, and with it came the cool weather of Autumn.

It was late one evening in early Autumn when Annika answered an incessant knocking at the door.

“Yes? Can I help you?”

“I need shelter. Bad people are chasing me, and I’ve heard that the home of Svarog’s priest is a safe place?” the young man said, wringing his hands.

“Yes. Please come in.” She turned and called out. “Risa! We have a visitor.” Turning back to the young man, who had just closed the door behind him, she said, “The priestess will be with you in a moment. I’ll set some water on for tea.”

He watched her walk away and waited for the priestess. Looking around, he took in the decorations, and nodded appreciatively.

Until he saw the priestess.

She came walking down the hall, dressed in a white robe, with a large amber pendant around her neck. To him, she seemed a picture of earthly beauty, and he could do nothing but stare.

“...sir? Sir, are you okay? Hello?” Risa asked, waving her hand before the man’s face, which snapped him out of his reverie.

“Begging your pardon, Miss. I’m Dvorik. I need somewhere to hide. Some bad men are after me, and I don’t want to die,” he said rapidly.

“I’m sorry, what did you say?”

“I said I don’t want to die. They’re coming after me. Maybe a day away. Can you help me?” he asked plaintively.

“I’m sorry. This house has seen enough death recently. We would rather not see any more. I’m afraid you must go, sir. I will not invite trouble to my home. Had you had a simple illness or injury, I could treat you. This is a matter for someone with more authority and martial prowess than myself. Please leave,” Risa said.

Unauthorized duplication: this narrative has been taken without consent. Report sightings.

“But… They’ll kill me,” he replied.

“Then you should not have done whatever you did to stoke their ire. If you do not leave, we will make you,” Risa said, crossing her arms.

Dvorik looked dejected, but turned around and walked out of the house. Risa stood there for a long minute, waiting to see if the young man would attempt to return, then barred the door.

She turned around to find Annika standing there with a pair of mugs in her hands, steam wafting from their tops.

“Did he leave already?”

“I sent him away, Annika. He was bringing trouble that we did not need. He said he was fleeing some people that were intent on doing him harm; possibly even killing him. That is more trouble than we need here. Papa taught me how to set bones and cure sickness. Not how to fight,” she said as she took a mug of tea.

Annika nodded, and the pair sat at the table to drink their tea. Almost an hour later, another noise was heard at the door, and Risa stood. Drawing the holy dagger from her hip, she slowly walked to the door, careful to make no sound.

Cautiously, she peered through the slats, seeing nothing but inky blackness beyond. She waited a moment longer, then sheathed her knife and returned to the table and downed her tea.

“We should rest. There is much work to be done in the morning,” Risa said softly. Annika nodded, and the pair retired to their rooms.

Dvorik paced like a caged animal which, in all respects, he was. Bartok had finally caught up with him, and levied the threat of either repayment, or certain death. Having no money thanks to his little “problem” with dice, he did the only thing he could think of.

“There is a priestess of Svarog in this village, Mister Bartok! It’s just her and some other woman living there. Just a few of you could take and sell them and settle into the house as a new base! It’s big enough. There’s enough of your men to keep the whole town under control. What do you think? Is it enough?” he asked, wringing his hands.

Bartok slammed a heavy fist into Dvorik’s middle. “If it isn’t boy, I’ll be back to see you in a hole. Eirik, Sven, Dala. You’re with me. The rest of you? Make sure he lives until I get back,” he said viciously.

The four of them stalked into Blek, quiet as a mouse in a room full of tomcats. They found the home just as Dvorik said; set off from the village a bit, and utterly dark. Bartok made a few gestures and the other three nodded, setting off to their respective points. When he heard the call of the nightjar, he counted to three and all four of them forced their way in.

The three women inside were startled awake by the sudden noise, and screamed in terror. Sinta and Annika were silenced almost immediately. Risa, however, had no window to her room, therefore there was no easy access to get to her.

As the four men searched the house, Katira thundered up the stairs from the workshop, roaring defiance. Risa had wrapped herself in the sheet, and was cowering in the corner. Bartok entered the room first, followed by bulky Sven. When he spied Risa in the corner, he grinned wickedly and drew a long knife from his belt.

“You shouldn’t have answered the door, girl. Now you’re mine,” he said and leapt for her, just as the trapdoor sprang open, revealing the ponderous bulk of Katira. Sven was first to react, and drove a knife deep into Katira’s ribs, causing her to cry out and roar in pain. With incredible strength, he shoved the furious bear backwards, falling atop her. Eirik and Dala made their way into the room then, and the pair of them joined Sven in his battle against the bear.

“Ha! A bear. Those three have killed plenty of bears. It’s your turn, girl. Let’s go,”

Risa shouted at the man and began to throw whatever she could get her hands on, landing a hit square to Bartok’s nose. He yelped in pain, and then angrily rushed her, driving the blade into her ribs from the side.

“Bitch! Bah. Could’ve fetched a nice price, that one. Kill that thing!” he bellowed, walking out of the room, clutching his bloody nose.

Katira roared in anger and pain as she was beaten and stabbed. When she heard Bartok’s words, she went still. Her assailants, thinking she had been killed, ceased their attacks and stood.

When Katira heard the raspy, bubbling breath of her child, she roared to life once more.

*****************************

“I killed them, Stu. All four of them. Without remorse. Without even thinking. Once I heard her fighting to breathe, I murdered all four of those men. My Risa. My poor Risa whom I’d loved as my own child was dying, and all I could think to do was to kill. There was no heir for me to go to. No child for me to watch over, nothing. Nobody to love. I killed them, and then went back to my child. Do you know what she said to me?” Katira asked, tears rolling down her beautiful cheeks.

“What did she say, darlin’?” I asked.

“She told me to go to Annika and to bring her there. If she was alive, anyway. So I did. I bit through Annika’s ropes and brought the nearly unconscious woman to Risa. My child knew. She knew she was dying, and asked Annika to allow me to take care of her once my child died. The poor girl was in no fit state to accept, but she did. Risa barely lasted another hour. During that time, Annika came back to her senses, and she still wanted to do as Risa said. Risa bade her take the scrolls and told her to write down everything. That she would know what she meant when it happened. And then my child died.” Katira cried for a few minutes, and I simply let her be.

“I wasn’t the same after that. I cared for Annika, sure. I even changed forms for her. I became a young man that she knew years before, who had died of what we would know as cancer. She wasn’t unkind to me, but she wasn’t Risa. The scrolls passed down from Person to Person, and eventually, I noticed that the workshop followed the scrolls. After a few more people, I began to simply stay in the workshop between them. It took almost three hundred years before I let myself love another. In all that time, I’d taken to simply calling them “Master” or “Mistress”. We eventually met others like me, and the terms were pretty much universal. It seems all familiars called their People “Master” or “Mistress”,” she said quietly.

“I’d guess that “the rest is history” or so they say?” I asked, dabbing at her face with a paper towel.

“Pretty much. There is more, but my story pretty much becomes the same as the history of the Guild at that point. I should let Steven tell the rest. It’s a rather interesting tale. For now, though, it is very late, and you should rest.

“Tomorrow, we will work on your strength. And I will drive you hard,” she said with a nod as she took my hands.

“Good. In this case, I don’t want you to be too kind or gentle with me. I need the ferocity of that bear you once were. Once you’ve gotten me close to where I once was, you can go back to being your kind and gentle self. Okay?” I asked, caressing her hands with my thumb.

“Yes, Sir. You’ll be back to your old self soon enough. I promise,” she said, then kissed me gently.

She helped me out of the chair, and together we went to bed, where I was nestled firmly and securely into her embrace.