Chapter 14

Raven

"Have you met Azalin before?", Shana asked as she and Marinae were served some fancy, wonderful tasting drinks.

"It has been too long since I had Feywyn.", Marinae confessed, sipping the sweet brew. "I haven't been around many elven communities."

"Or Evermead!", Marinae added. "Though there is one place in the southwest where a delightful ale is brewed. Very dark, rather bitter, actually...and I am babbling."

Shana smiled. She liked it when people babbled. They tended to give away all their secrets when they did. "Have you met Azalin before?", she asked again.

Marinae looked embarrassed. "I am so sorry.", she apologized. "I talked right past your question the first time. But no, I haven't met him. Grandmother was planning on a meeting shortly before I...left.", Marinae added, casting her eyes down. She knew that she didn't want to leave her home again.

"It is a great honor to speak to Azalin.", Shana explained. "Don't be ashamed of what you have done."

"I'm not ashamed. It, it was what needed to be done. I needed to leave.", Marinae replied. "Exile wasn't quite in the plan, but you've probably seen Mother, how she can provoke others."

Marinae ordered a Feywyn for her second round and offered to pay alternates, but Shana insisted on covering the tab. Marinae wondered if the proprietor dared charge Shana for anything.

Shana thought for a moment. "Ama...?", she began.

"Amadreidia. Such a pretentious name, isn't it?", Marinae babbled. "I mean...well, that sounded bitchy.  I...she...we've never really gotten along, not since I started getting more independent."

"The name suits her. She is a pretentious woman.", Shana said with a slight smile. "Yours is a most interesting family."

Marinae smiled wryly. "That's one way to describe it.", she replied.

"Would you like to see her before we leave?", Shana asked. "Or we could leave immediately."

"She didn't look happy to see me.", Marinae confessed. She savored her first Feywyn in nearly two years, though it was tinged bitter by her homecoming. "If I have the time later, assuming I am given leave, I would like to see Grandmother and a few others I've missed. Mother will likely show up on her own."

Shana chuckled lightly. "When would you be ready to leave?", she asked.

"Do we need to leave tonight?", Marinae asked. "I hate to delay, but I should get some sleep if I am going to be worth anything."

"We should go no later than tomorrow morning.", Shana replied.

Marinae nodded. It wasn't long, but it was enough time to do the things that she wanted to do. "Do you know the Red Eagle Inn, shortly south of here?", she asked.

"Yes.", Shana replied. "My carriage will be there in the morning."

"Thank you.", Marinae replied graciously. "Since we are going by carriage, I will have my horse taken to one of the kenneling stables. I'm certain he will be happy to have nothing to do for awhile."

"We'll bring him along.", Shana replied. "You will be needing him."

"Ah. Then I will enjoy sitting on something other than a saddle.", Marinae said and excused herself.


Marinae leaned back against the door once she'd locked it. For all the splendor of Neblus, she could easily have chosen one of the upper-class hostels, where servants would see to her every need. Yet Marinae had selected a somewhat down-at-the-heels tap house in the sort of neighborhood that would scandalize those Courtly ladies in the palace. But where they would have wrinkled their delicate noses at the smells of stale beer, tired people, and horse unmentionables, Marinae found comfort in the familiar.

"All those scented candles, scented lanterns, scented bodies, scented clothing, scented everything! How did I ever breathe in that?", Marinae wondered as she shook her head and sighed. "I'm alive. I never hoped to survive once the Duke recognized me, even if he had taken my message seriously. Friends in high places and all that."

Marinae looked wistfully at the bed. "I could so easily fall into it and sleep for days! But…this dress deserves better.", she said absently to Rambis, who jumped up on the bed and beat her to it.

Marinae unfastened the short cape covering her shoulders and draped it over the back of a padded chair. Like so many of her things it was fine and beautiful. An intricate brocade of tiny dragons were woven across the cape, silvery against the color of a crimson flame. The wizened little man who had sold it and the matching dress to her in a market far to the southwest had told her it was dyed with real dragons' blood and sewn with silver thread. Marinae didn't believe him, but decided that the story alone was worth the extra cost. She could tell everyone about it and make the Court ladies green with envy.

"Even now, the fashionable ladies, and some of the men, will be wondering where to find one for themselves.", Marinae mused. "For once, I don't blame them. There is silk aplenty. Lady Maeve will insist on brocading acres of those horrid little dogs into her outfits! There will be some truly hideous gowns in the Palace within a fortnight!"

Marinae was just about to undo the clasp of her dress when someone knocked at her door. Old habits died hard, and so she prepared for the worst, wishing that she'd bothered to unpack her saddlebags so that she'd have a dagger or two at hand. Marinae went to the door, pausing just long enough to prime a mage-bolt, and then she drew the door open cautiously, ready to fry the intruder if need be.

There was a surprised grunt, then an amused cough from the elf who was even then about to knock again.

"Don't kill me, little Raven!" the visitor said with exaggerated fear.

Marinae stood staring at him for a long moment before throwing herself into his arms. She hadn't heard Ellan's pet name for her in what felt like a lifetime.

"Ellan!", Marinae cried out as her former fighting teacher, and sometimes lover, beamed and hugged her to himself.

"Not too tightly!" Marinae protested. "I broke one of your rules of fighting: 'Never use a crossbow when you need a trebuchet'."

Ellan relaxed his arms and drew back to look her over. "Knowing you, you were probably brawling with a man twice your size.", he said with a grin.

"I was, and I won!" Marinae retorted. Then she remembered the price she paid for victory. "Well…I was…injured."

Ellan caught her tone and smoothly changed the subject.

"You put on quite the show this night.", Ellan said as he stroked Marinae's cheek with one long finger and smiled. "I daresay you surpassed even your own mother's capacity for dramatic entrances!"

"It was just the dress." Marinae replied. Ellan's touch awakening a flame deep within her.

"It was the woman." Ellan countered, moving his finger to Marinae's lips to quiet her. "You may practice being self-effacing when you are not dressed fit to outshine the sun."

"Ellan…", Marinae protested.

"Yes, I know, you do not care for flattery, even when you deserve it. Even now." Ellan replied, taking the dark-haired half-elf's hand and guiding her over to her bed.

"Ahem!", a voice piped up in Marinae's mind. It came from the black and gray tabby cat curled up on her bed. "Can't a cat get any sleep?", he asked. A single yellow-green eye glared mockingly up at the intruders.

Marinae laughed. "This bundle of fur is Rambis, my familiar.", she said, introducing her cat to her guest.

"Tell him I bite.", Rambis added, wondering if this was going to turn into another 'Jonathan incident'.

Marinae wondered, and not for the first time, whether anyone else could 'hear' Rambis. Ellan apparently hadn't and was scratching between Rambis' ears.

"Especially if he stops that.", Rambis added as his eyes rolled back into his head.

"He says that you're in mortal danger if you stop doing that.", Marinae said, translating.

"A worthy adversary.", Ellan remarked and continued scratching.

"If this one hurts you, I'll do my best to kill him.", Rambis said as he looked swooningly up at Marinae.

"He won't. But thank you for the thought.", Marinae replied smiling as the cat hopped down from the bed and curled up on the floor.

"Keep the noise down.", Rambis replied. He couldn't resist a parting shot.

"He's given us permission to use his bed." Marinae said as she looked into Ellan's eyes. There was so much to tell him, things she felt that Lynn and the rest of her companions wouldn't have understood, but all those things were getting farther and farther away.

Ellan's fingers found the clasp of Marinae's dress and she let him slip it off of her. But the passion hadn't consumed her so much that she wasn't going to take care of her best dress. Gently she took it from him and draped it next to the cape.

Ellan looked his raven up and down. Marinae's travels had kept her lean and strong, a look that Ellan liked to see. His eyes rolled down her slender body and then rested on a U-shaped row of indentations, half a hand-span across, marking her right thigh. For a moment Ellan was stunned and couldn't say anything. He didn't try to touch the scar, and Marinae was more than slightly disappointed that he didn't.

"I got those in a village named Sturben.", Marinae said, "Far to the southwest. I was stalked by a trio of wolves. One of them got to me. That was my first injury in battle you might say."

"Who was the Healer?", Ellan asked admiring the way Marinae's skin was smooth and unbroken around the scar. "The tooth marks hardly show."

"One of my traveling companions, a young human named Eliza. She healed three of us.", Marinae said with a yawn.

Ellan gestured toward the bed. "You need rest.", he advised.

Marinae stepped toward Ellan instead. "I learned a few things while I was away.", she replied and tugged at the lacings of his shirt with a little magic. Then she slowly stripped all his clothes off the same way, without having to lay a finger on him.

"I thought you two were just going to sleep!", Rambis grumbled. Then he made a show of stomping off into the adjoining room.

"We will, eventually!", Marinae replied, and this time she got the parting shot.


The big man's hands thrust forward, smashing into her chest. Marinae felt her sternum and ribs crack in a blossom of fire. Then Marinae awoke with a start, feeling an arm around her waist and someone pressed against her back. Still in the grip of her nightmare, and still feeling strong, ghostly fingers about her throat, the terrified woman threw herself out of the bed and lurched over to her saddlebags, looking for a weapon to use against her assailant. She had her hand on one of her throwing daggers when Rambis put a paw on her arm.

"Marinae?", the cat asked as the sorceress reflexively snatched her hand away from the furry appendage. "You're having a nightmare."

"No. I'm awake. It's…", Marinae thought to her cat. Her head was spinning. Where was she?

Sympathy and concern tinged Rambis mind-voice as he tried to calm his mistress' nerves. His pupils were wide in the dimly-lit room, showing rings of yellow-green irises.

Marinae looked at the bed in confusion. There was no evil Falkovnian there, just a naked elf staring quizzically at her.

"Oh.", Marinae said out loud.

"Go back to bed.", Rambis said, head-butting Marinae, licking her nose once, and moving away. "You have a busy day tomorrow."

Marinae blinked away the last of the nightmare and met Ellan's questioning eyes. Pointing to the wolf-bite on her thigh and wondering if it had really been over a year ago when she got it, she told Ellan, "It is a long story; and it is time that you heard it."

Marinae told the whole story, even the details she wasn't so proud of. Ellan listened in silence, his face betraying his thoughts as Marinae described fights with wolves, kobolds, a black oily creature, and, finally, a powerfully built Falkovnian.

"He and the other were as brothers, both of a kind.", Marinae said, describing the Falkovnian monks. "Once they had killed off their own company, they set off to get us. Weamar, David, and I were still hiding amongst the rocks and Lynn and Jonathan had gone along the trail. The brothers had turned and were followed Lynn. I waited for a clean shot, still wishing I'd chosen to learn the longbow rather than crossbow."

"We stalked them from behind, above and below the trail. Weamar fired a warning shot just as I let fly my bolt. The man I had chosen spun at the sound of the musket, saw my bolt coming, and moved to knock it out of the air. Perhaps he was tired, I don't know, but he misjudged the distance and the bolt pierced his hand! Then he cursed and ripped the thing free and threw it to the ground."

Marinae looked into Ellan's eyes and was pleased to see amazement in them. "Needless to say, I was impressed.", she added. "The other brother followed Lynn and Jonathan, but then a strange, dark mist gathered near them and a jet black horse appeared therein. Then Jonathan decided to stop being invisible and he and Lynn climbed up onto the shadow mount and rode away."

"A shadow horse?", Ellan asked. "Like the one that Kiri creature was riding before?"

Marinae hadn't thought of it that way, but he was right. She kicked herself for missing another clue. "Probably the same horse, if we're right and Jonathan was actually the Drow bitch."

Ellan nodded.

"So here stands brave Marinae, holding a useless crossbow and watching a rather large human closing in on her.", Marinae said, building up the suspense. "Weamar shot at him again and missed, but I put three levin-bolts through his personal space. They just didn't stop him. All he did was grunt. He didn't even slow down!"

Marinae's hand went to her chest, her fingers tracing a line up and down her breastbone. Ellan didn't seem to notice. Marinae stilled her hand and took a deep breath before continuing.

"He…smiled, like Evil itself, the very embodiment of Falkovnia. He smiled…and jumped up the slope toward me. I had to wait for my magic to build up again, it seemed to take forever, though it's faster than that damned crossbow!", Marinae said, her fingers moving up and down her sternum as she relived the agonizing moments. "I was wishing devoutly that I had picked up that sword in the cave. Then he…"

Marinae gasped and couldn't speak for a moment. Ellan gathered her hands in his and whispered calming words as he caressed her fingers. Marinae found her voice once more and continued.

"…he hit me in the chest, with both fists.", Marinae gasped. "Remember when I was in the stables and that horrible chestnut gelding kicked me? This was much worse, as if an entire stable of horses had kicked me. I felt my breastbone and ribs breaking. I was so shocked I didn't even fall down. I remember trying to get my magic to work, but everything was so confused."

Marinae's eyes grew wide and flitted about the room.

"I couldn't breathe, Ellan.", Marinae gasped. "I could feel nothing but fire in my chest. Weamar says he slashed the great bastard across the back with his sword, but he didn't fall. It took every last bit of strength for me to hold up my staff in the hope that I could hold him off a little longer. Just a few more moments. I could feel Death's eye upon me."

Ellan shuddered. Death wasn't something discussed lightly among elves.

"He brushed my staff aside, got me by the throat, and lifted me off my feet. Weamar hewed him like a lumberjack, but the gallows-man would not fall. I'm told that I raised my hands to either side of the bastard's head and fired levin-bolts into his skull. He was dead before he dropped me. I don't remember anything but the pain and his fingers."

Marinae's hands touched her throat as if feeling ghostly fingers out of memory tightening there.

"You survived, Raven.", Ellan said, taking both of her hands in his own. "It must be your human heritage, causing these…ill-dreams?"

"Nightmares.", Marinae replied.

"Nightmares, then.", Ellan corrected himself. "I don't envy you. But why have you waited so long to talk about this?"

"I…I…", Marinae gasped.

But Marinae couldn't speak around the tightness in her throat. She let out a single sob, and then she was crying. Ellan released her hands and moved around behind her on the bed, where he wrapped his arms around her and held her gently. She turned and buried her face between his neck and shoulder.

"…alone…", Marinae said, and said it so quietly Ellan was almost sure that he had imagined it.

"You were not alone, Raven. Your friends were fighting at your side.", Ellan reminded her.

"Not elves.", Marinae whispered. "They're not elf-kin…I couldn't t-tell them...wouldn't understand!"

"What?", Ellan prompted.

"Death.", Marinae replied.

Again, Ellan felt a chill at the word. "They don't understand…death?", he asked, confused.

"Not for us.", Marinae answered. "Not what it would mean to one of us."

"Ah. But…would Death not have the same meaning for any mortal?", Ellan countered. "It is the end of life."

"But…", was all that Marinae could get out.

"Do you count your own life as more important than theirs?", Ellan interrupted.

"No!", Marinae said sitting upright and staring at her lover. "What does that have…"

"Everything, Marinae.", Ellan replied gently. "It is easy to forget that you are half-human, isn't it?"

"No! No, it is not!", Marinae yelped. "Not with everyone else making an issue of it!"

Ellan simply looked at her.

"You think I'm a snob.", Marinae said accusingly.

Ellan decided that a direct answer was best. "Yes.", he replied with a maddening little smile. "And the fact that you said so without me having to…", he let his words trail off. "But that is of little importance. You offered your life to save your friends and you didn't hold back to protect yourself. And this is no less than I would expect of you, given how well I know you. Tell me, did you ever really face death before you were so badly injured?"

"Well, yes!", Marinae fired back. "I told you about it. The wolves, the black ooze…"

"You weren't that badly injured by the wolves. You walked away from that fight, wrapped your own wounds.", Ellan pointed out. "And Eliza drew the black creature away from you before it could kill you. She drew it upon herself."

"That was my fault. If I hadn't…", Marinae said before being interrupted again.

"Marinae. Look at me. Look.", Ellan said, turning her head to face him. "Did you force Eliza to come to your aid?"

"Ellan.", Marinae protested weakly.

"Did you force her to help you?", Ellan repeated.

"No.", Marinae conceded. She didn't want to argue. Couldn't he see that it was her fault?

"Did you stop to think about it when any of your friends were in danger?", Ellan continued to press her.

"No.", Marinae answered contritely.

"Your actions were your own. Right? They didn't coerce you?", Ellan said.

"No.", Marinae answered.

"What does that tell you? Could you have prevented Eliza's drawing the creature away?", Ellan said, hoping that he was remembering everything that Marinae had told him correctly.

"I could hardly move!", Marinae cried out. "But if I hadn't tried to rescue the horses…"

"That wasn't the best thing you could have done, no. You think it stupid. I call it 'inexperienced'. If you had paid more attention, you would have noted that the creature was ignoring the horses. Such things, one must learn.", Ellan replied, deciding to concede the issue since it wasn't his main point.

"Tell me…" Ellan said, narrowing his eyes. "Do the others blame you? Or did they tell you Eliza's injuries were your fault?"

"No one else, not even Aselid…not Rambis…", Marinae responded, helpless against Ellan's logic.

"No one would pity you but yourself?", Ellan concluded, triumphantly closing his case.

Marinae felt her face burning, first with anger towards Ellan for daring to speak so, and then with embarrassment.

"He's right.", Marinae confessed to herself.

"Of course he is.", Rambis retorted from somewhere in the room. "I've tried to tell you the same things. But no one ever listens to me. I'm just a cat."

"Raven, my love, it has been boring here without you. But this place…you can do much more good being with your friends. You have accomplished so much in two years!", Ellan said, trying to build Marinae back up now that he'd knocked down her wall of self-pity. "Most of the generals in our armies haven't fought in as many battles as you. There are Adept Mages who have a detailed knowledge of every spell-scroll, but could hardly hold their own in combat!"

Marinae wouldn't smile, so Ellan kept going. "Can you imagine that that obese fop who taught you magic theory would have thought of freezing spilled water and then adapting a levitation spell to push Rastinon to his doom? Could he even imagine killing an attacker with levin bolts directly into his brain?", he said, rubbing her arms. "You have long since outgrown his teachings. He is still in the classroom, without so much as a wolf-bite to his name. You? You have a story for your customers in that inn you've always wanted to own."

Marinae still wouldn't smile. Now she was pitying herself for pitying herself. Ellan pulled out his secret weapon.

"I never told you about the first time I nearly died.", Ellan said after a moment.

"The first time?", Marinae answered.

"There have been a few.", Ellan continued. "I was young and foolish, as all these stories begin. I was perhaps a hundred."

Marinae raised an eyebrow. Ellan was close to one-hundred and fifty.

"An impetuous child!", Marinae teased, starting to come out of her funk.

"No less than you.", Ellan replied in turn. "Be silent and hear my tale, wench."

"Wench, am I?", Marinae responded sharply. "You've gone mean in your old age."

"Imp.", Ellan said happily as he saw life returning to Marinae's eyes. "I was around one-hundred. I had my eye on a young lady of no particular rank who was attracting others' eyes in the Court. Including those of one young Highborn named Corbett."

"Corbett? The head of the Merchant's Guild?", Marinae replied. She had seen the dour-faced human in Court that evening. "He must be nearly seventy by now!"

"He was young and impetuous once, too. I have the scar to prove it.", Ellan shifted on the bed and lifted his shirt so that Marinae could see his back. A thin, pale star-shaped scar marked the skin near his left kidney.
She ran a finger along it. "I never noticed this one before."

"You tend to pay more attention to my front.", Ellan said with a rakish grin.

"That's what you think.", Marinae replied. "So Corbett didn't approve of your attentions or your rivalry?"

Ellan's grin widened. "I think he objected most to finding me with her…in bed…a month after they married.", he said, laughing at himself.

"Oh no! My teacher, a scoundrel!", Marinae replied with only a hint of seriousness in her voice.

"Indeed. I still feel sorry for her.", Ellan said, trying to interject a serious note. "I'm given to understand that there was a lot of blood. She hasn't attended more than five Court functions in all this time." Ellan paused thoughtfully. "A pity, actually. She's still rather handsome."

"Beast!", Marinae said laughing. She was surprised to find that she was feeling better than she had in months.

Ellan gazed at her for a long moment. "I have missed your laugh, Raven.", he said wistfully.

"I have missed you calling me that.", Marinae replied.

They were quiet for several minutes. "I have to leave again, soon.", Marinae said regretfully.

"Who did you hit this time?", Ellan said as he nudged her.

Without a word, Marinae twisted around and pinned her lover to the bed. "Do I need to hit you?", she said with a grin.

"I am quite at your mercy." Ellan confessed happily.

"You two are worse than humans.", Rambis grumbled.


Marinae was awakened by a determined knocking at the door. It took a moment to disentangle herself from Ellan's arms and several more to find a robe. By that time, the knocking sounded impatient.

"There's only one person that's likely to be.", Marinae thought to herself. "Good morning, Mother.", she said as she swung the door open.

If Amadreidia was surprised that her daughter knew it was her she covered it well, but she couldn't quite cover her surprise at seeing Ellan. Then her eyes narrowed as she spoke to him in an icy voice, "I trust you can find your way out."

"Of course.", Ellan said.

Then Ellan made a show of stretching as he got out of the bed, totally naked and still rather…aroused. He gathered up his clothing, took his time getting dressed, and gave Marinae a long, slow kiss on his way out. Then he bowed to Amadreidia so formally as to insult her and closed the door behind him.

"Oh, I like him.", Rambis commented.

"She has never liked him.", Marinae thought back to her cat. Then she added, "Probably because he won't sleep with her."

"Ouch.", Rambis replied as he felt the chilly mood between the two women.

"Imagine my surprise last night, seeing my exiled daughter in Court.", Amadreidia began, her tone acidic.

"I had to come back.", Marinae explained.

"Yes, yes, I was there. I heard your 'message'.", Amadreidia replied harshly, dismissing the matter with the wave of one hand. "No one could seriously believe that Drakov poses any sort of threat to us! Darkon is strong! The King has seen to that! And if we should ever find ourselves under attack there is nothing to fear. Azalin will save us."

"Spoken as one who has never set foot outside the kingdom." Marinae retorted. It was true, her mother hadn't. "I have been to Falkovnia, Mother. I have seen elves branded and enslaved. I won't risk that happening here, even if it means my own life."

"Don't tell me you still believe in 'honor'.", Marinae's mother shaded the word with contempt. "Such a quaint, archaic notion!"

"She simply won't listen! But did she ever listen to me?", Marinae thought to Rambis.

"She is as stubborn as you are.", Rambis remarked to Marinae's chagrin.

"You've probably spent the past two years as a tavern wench, and when the money ran out you came crawling back here!", Amadreidia hissed. It wasn't what she wanted to say, but she was angry at her daughter and was losing control of her emotions.

Marinae simply stared at her mother. "Well, this is new.", she thought to herself. "She's never called me a liar before. And if she didn't just now, I will eat the ugliest hat in her wardrobe."

Marinae opened her robe, letting it fall to the ground and exposing her bare skin.

"So I made this up?", Marinae shot back, pointing to the bite marks on her thigh. "I got this fighting a wolf, Mother. It very nearly killed me, and its pack-mate nearly killed a good friend of mine. It nearly tore her throat out, Mother. But don't let that convince you." Then Marinae grabbed Amadreidia's hand and pressed it to her sternum. "Feel this? There's a bump all along my breastbone. Care to guess what caused it, Mother?"

Amadreidia shivered and yanked her hand back. She stared at her daughter reproachfully.

Marinae kept talking. "There was a man. He and his brother killed a dozen others and came after us," she said, giving a much-edited accounting. "He caught the arrow I fired at him. He hardly staggered when I did this…"

Then Marinae whispered a few magic words and fired a levin-bolt at the nearest wall. She was rewarded with a scorch mark on the wall and a gasp from her mother.

"And he kept coming. He hit me with both fists, right here.", Marinae said as she rubbed her sternum. "It broke my breastbone and several ribs. Then he picked me up by the throat."

"Stop. Please stop." Amadreidia moaned, barely able to endure the thought of her only child suffering so. She had turned pale and was weeping.

"Why? So you can keep pretending that I'm just an ungrateful brat?", Marinae replied with venom in her voice.

"I never said…", Amedreidia sobbed.

"No? Ever since I stopped being a good little girl you have been trying to force me right back into the mold.", Marinae answered, struggling to keep her voice level and reasonable as she bent to pick up her robe and slip it on.

"Well, with all the horrors I've faced, Mother is going to have to work at getting a rise out of me, now.", Marinae thought to herself.

"Don't you dare try to blame me for your exile!", Amedreidia retorted, desperately trying to save face.

"I don't. I am responsible for it. And you are trying to change the subject. I will not argue with you anymore, Mother.", Marinae spoke forcefully. "Did you know that the servants looked forward to our screaming matches? We provided them with entertainment at least once a week. I believe one of us is mature enough to deny the servants here any amusement this day."

The remark stung and Marinae kept going.

"And if you will excuse me, Mother, I have an audience with the King to prepare for. I look forward to speaking with you later.", Marinae said in the gracious tone of a hostess finding it necessary to dismiss a troublesome guest.

"Not far from the truth.", Marinae mused. "This is my home, if only for the day."

Amadreidia bridled at her daughter's dismissal, but ever conscious of appearances she nevertheless mouthed some appropriate good-byes and left. She knew that she'd failed, and that she'd lost her child forever.

"She doesn't know what to make of you, now.", Rambis said.

"I know how she feels.", Marinae replied.


Marinae had perhaps five minutes of peace before yet another visitor knocked at her door.

"Half the city seems intent on seeing me today.", Marinae thought as she opened the door with a weary sigh, not even caring who it was.

"Not the most cheerful greeting I've ever received.", Marinae's grandmother observed. "Though your mother looks utterly out of sorts. Will the servants have stories to tell?"

Marinae smiled, blushed a little, and invited her in with a warm embrace. "Mother tried to dress me down. I didn't let her. And there was no screaming match." Marinae said with a sigh. "I do not have the patience for it."

Her grandmother feigned shock. "My willful granddaughter, tired of a good argument?", she said and then let a smile eek out. "Are you well? Have boars sprouted wings?"

"Your wild-eyed granddaughter has had the stuffing beaten out of her, several times over.", Marinae said as she plopped down on the bed.

"Hmm. There were some before you left who said you needed sense beaten into you.", the old woman replied cleverly.

"Mother didn't mention that, this time.", Marinae confessed. "I think she was too disappointed that I wasn't shouting back at her."

"You would not think that, had you heard her crying herself to sleep when you left.", her grandmother told her.

Marinae could only blink in surprise. She couldn't even imagine such a thing.

"She worried about you, even as she wore a stern face for the Courtly ninnies.", her grandmother continued.  "At first, she was furious that you had the nerve to be your own woman! But where she once wanted a compliant daughter, a mirror of herself, she came to realize that she was wrong. She has matured, you might say. She has confided in me, wishing that there were a way for you to come home, but knowing that it cannot be done."

Marinae listened, eager to hear every word.

"And now you appear in Court, defying its laws, with only a member of the Kargat between you and a prison term!" the old woman said, eying her granddaughter thoughtfully, and with more than a little worry. "Please take care around Shana. Don't give her too much too quickly. She will try to maneuver you into something. Think like an elf, and remember the Court, where an ally can be an enemy."

"I've found that real life is like the Court writ large, whether the players have pointy ears or not.", Marinae said.

"Very true.", her grandmother replied. "I suppose I needn't fear for you on that count. How is Ellan?"

Marinae smiled, the only answer that she needed to give.

Her grandmother smiled back. "Your mother arrived at an inopportune moment.", she said, then thought again. "Or maybe the best possible moment. Perhaps now she will leave him alone."

"And perhaps your wild-eyed granddaughter will bring you a winged boar on her next visit home. If there is a next visit.", Marinae said, emphasizing the word 'is'. "Tell me, was I wrong to bring the warning?"

Her grandmother didn't answer for a moment. Instead, she sketched a sign in the air between them and muttered a cantrip that would bring them a measure of privacy. Then she spoke. "Briefly, now, for there are ears all around us. It is possible that the Falkovnians pose a danger. Darkon has grown too comfortable with its own power, and over-confident of its reach. But I am old enough to remember how much the world can change and how quickly powerful rulers can be swept away. There are dangers lurking all about."

At that, Marinae's grandmother gave her a look of warning. She feared for her grand-daughter's safety, knowing the Kargat's reputation. And she wondered how much she should say, for fear that her words would be heard by those she didn't want to hear them, one way or another.

"The King has taken an interest in you.", the old woman said. "That's not always a good thing."

"I...", Marinae began.

"Listen to me.", the old elf continued. "If I can learn of your doings by rumor and gossip, the King can learn of them with more certainty. It would be best if you had never come here. The best we can do now is see things through."

Then Marinae's grandmother banished the cantrip, forced a smile, and said, "I hope we can spend more time together once your audience with the king has ended."

Marinae didn't know what to say.