Chapter 24: I Promise You This

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It's early autumn, the lingering heat of summer still warms the air while the leaves change color and fall from the trees. Winter's cold will follow soon enough, but Ardax will not live to see another snow. His time has come, his spirit has told him as much, so he spends today, the last of his days, telling stories to his grandson.

He spends time with his granddaughter. She is young yet, but already he sees the spark in her. Of Kairi's children, she might be the one to follow the spirit path. Ardax wishes he could be here to help with her training, but that will fall to Kvornan.

Of course he could be wrong, as he had been about his own daughter. As a child, she too showed every promise, and as a teen she'd already begun her training as her brother had before her. But something changed her suddenly, literally overnight, at the same time Evenfall left the tribe to join her fae folk. Kairi still had her talent for magic, but had lost the will to use it, lost all interest in following her parents' path. Uvie pressed her, tried to continue her teaching, but Kairi shut her out, grew too distracted in her lessons to learn. Uvie never gave up trying, not until Kairi took their chief's son as a mate and left their hut and the life of the spirit talker behind.

Ardax tries not to be sad when he looks at his daughter, tries not think about what she lost when she changed so suddenly, because she obviously doesn't think of it, and is not saddened by her loss. She's the mate of their young chief, they have two strong children and the hope of more. Whatever happened to Kairi to make her suddenly lose all interest in the magic she was born with, she has not suffered for it, but instead prospered. So Ardax keeps his twinge of sadness to himself.

He says goodbye to his daughter without letting on that this is the last goodbye. One glance at his son tells him Kvornan knows what he knows, and with a nod of his head and a small gesture, he beckons the young man to follow him. Ardax has taught his son everything he had to teach about serving as the tribe's spirit talker, yet the lessons never truly end. Not even for him, and he's an old man looking at his own death.

They go down to lake, where they used to forage to forage for medicinal herbs. They've taken to growing these plants in the village now, as well as the fruit and vegetable crops that supplement the hunt. Much has changed since Ardax was his son's age, when the tribes never stayed in one place for too long, always following the herds as they roamed the land. Here, in this land that Uvie says is blessed by the fair folk, game is always plenty, and the people have settled in their village, building stronger huts meant to last through the years, planting crops, changing the landscape as they are changed by it.

"You are the oldest of my children," Ardax says after a moment of quiet reflection shared with his son, "Yet it is Kairi who has given us two grandchildren while you remain without a mate, without children."

"It would be cruel of me to take a mate while my heart belongs to another," Kvornan answers, as he has answered every time his father broaches this subject.

Like his daughter, Ardax's son experienced a sudden change in his youth, his first spirit journey brought him to places no spirit talker had ever been, and he returned with a memory of girl who had no comparison, whose image would forever stand between him and any real girl who offered herself to him. And there had been, and continued to be, many of those, Ardax think with chagrin of all the young would-be mothers of his grandchildren.

"I had a mate before your mother, and two children," Ardax says slowly. It's an old wound, but one that never truly healed, "When she died, I carried her memory in my heart, and thought I should never love another. But, as I spent time with your mother, I learned that I still had room in my heart for love, and that I did myself an injustice by keeping faith with a memory. I hate to see you denying yourself the happiness a family can bring, son, for a girl you saw in a vision, who may not even exist in this world or any other."

"But that's the difference between your Thari and my Jennail; you knew who she was, where she came from and how she died. When you and mother joined, you knew Thari was nothing more than a memory, and that you were free to love again. I do not know any of that, I only know that I saw a girl who captured my heart. I may never see her again, it's true, but I know she is real, and I may yet find her. I am not free to love another so long as I have that hope."

Ardax nods, knowing before he started that his argument would be futile. "If you will not have children of your own, you must see to it that one of Kairi's children follows our path. It will be up to you to teach your sister's children what they must know."

"Of course, Father. I will see to it, and serve or tribe as you have done. I promise you this."

The day grows long, and Uvie joins Ardax by the lake just as the sun begins to sink into the western sky.

"I've said my goodbyes to evreyone but you, my love," he whispers as she sits close beside him.

"I don't want you to say goodbye," Uvie whispers.

"And yet I must," he answers, wiping the tears that begin to roll down her cheeks, "We are mortal, and we all must end. We had a good life together, raised our children and grown old. I could not ask for a happier end."

Ardax died that night in his sleep, and his tribe buried him in the barrows they had dug to house their dead. The barrows had ben Ardax's idea, to create a permanent home for their lost members just as they had found a permanent home to live in. Uvie kept calm through the rites their son performed as they laid Ardax to his final rest, and it was not until the tribe had dispersed and gone back out to their village that she broke down into tearful mourning.

"Come, Mother, let us go," Kvornan whispers, comforting his mother with an embrace, "Father would not want to see you crying for him."

He takes her by the hand as they exit the tomb, and they walk back down to the village in silence.

It's summer, and Uvie and Ardax take respite from the heat under the shade of a tree.

"My little love," he murmurs gently as he caresses her shoulder and meets her lips in a tender kiss.

Uvie chokes on a sob as she pulls away from him. "Did you think that would comfort me?" she asks, her voice hoarse with grief. "Of course you did," she continues with a bitter sigh, "You don't understand humans, and you never will."

"You miss him so, my little love. I only wanted to give you what you long for," Auberon says gently, embracing her from behind, "But I've only upset you further, and I am sorry for that."

"You can't give him back to me, he's gone even beyond your reach," Uvie sobs, turning to let her tears fall onto his shoulder. "He was the best of men, and my life is empty without him. I'm afraid to wake up and see the empty place on our sleeping furs, to go through the day alone."

"You are never alone, my little love," Auberon says, but his words fail to comfort her and her sobbing goes on unabated.

"Tell me what I can do for you," Auberon says,"I want to ease your distress. I want to see you smile again."

She smiles, weakly, and shakes her head, "I know that I will not grieve forever, that the daily cares of life will take my attention, that the joys of being with my children and grandchildren will overcome my sorrow. It's just a matter of time, and nothing can hasten it. But if you would do something for me..."

"Anything, little love, anything at all," Auberon promises.

"Talk to my son," Uvie says, "He had a vision on his first spirit journey, and returned in love with a dream, Neither his father nor I understand what he saw, but perhaps you might. Ardax stood in your place to be a father to Evenfall. I ask you now to stand as a father to my son in place of the one he lost, and guide him as though he were your own."

"I will do this," Auberon swears.

Finding the young man was easy enough, as Uvie children inherited Auberon's own magic from her, and he has only to look for pieces of himself to find the dream world Kvornan's mind retreats to when he sleeps. Entering the young shaman's dream, Auberon is overcome with awe at the raw energy of creation that flows around him. Kvornan inherited Auberon's own magic from Uvie, and having been born with it, he's spent his life learning to use it in ways that his mother never attempted.

"What are you building?" Auberon asks the young dreamer.

"I saw these stones in a vision," Kvornan answers, "I seek to understand their power."

"They are just stones," Auberon answers, "Their power flows from you."

"I see," Kvornan says, "You are one of the fair folk, aren't you? Evenfall's father?"

"I am," Auberon says, "I am Auberon. Your mother asked me to visit you. She said you'd had a vision she couldn't understand."

"Jennail, of House Tricou," Kvornan answers quickly, "Do you know her?"

Auberon shakes his head sadly, hating to fail Uvie's request of him, "I do not know that name."

Kvornan nods, expecting as much, "Then I'll just have to keep searching," he says, turning his attention away from the fairy.

Auberon frowns. He swore to Uvie that he'd help the boy, guide him, but his promise is not so easily delivered on. But a vow is a vow, and Auberon will have to find a way to fulfill it.