Chapter
10: Whimsical Water Spirits
Conch rode in on Edrea’s shoulder, figuring that he would be less
conspicuous that way. But since
nobody in the cafeteria wanted to eat the slop that was being served, they were
only too happy to turn their attention to whoever happened to walk in. Consequently, he felt like he was on display for the whole
world to see. He almost felt like
doing something to make them really stare, but he was more interested in getting
his paws on some real food.
He realized when he looked around that he didn’t see either Arvad or
any of the three Plains tribe youths. Evidently,
Edrea was wondering the same thing, because she said, “I don’t see them...
And I don’t see Wein, either. I
swear, if I find out that he’s gone back on his word, I’m going to...”
Edrea stopped when she noticed the shadows that were visible through the
kitchen doorway. “They’re not
in there, are they? That
equipment’s not exactly for beginners,” she said and strode over to kitchen
doorway.
She peeked around the corner tentatively, and her jaw dropped.
She was expecting things to be in utter chaos.
At the very least, there should have been a mess somewhere...
But no, everything was spotless. Neil
was whistling while he cooked some type of meat dish on the stove top.
Alicia and Laticia were fixing a salad, but exactly what kind, Edrea
couldn’t tell, because Arvad and an apprentice she recognized were sitting on
the counter, blocking her view. “Keefe,
what are you doing here?” Edrea asked.
“Supervising, hoping that the cooks will take pity on me and give me
something decent to eat, too,” Keefe grinned and nodded his head toward Arvad,
“...and chatting with our new Minister of Finance, here.”
“Minister of Finance... You?” Edrea stared at Arvad. “This has got to be some kind of a
sick joke.”
“I’m afraid it’s not. I
made the mistake of looking too interested in the paperwork, so Guildmistress
Orielle decided to hire me to do it for her,” Arvad looked and Conch and
asked, “Hey, Conch, what happened to you?
Your fur’s all... poofy.”
Conch stuck his tongue out at Arvad and refused to answer. He really didn’t want to admit just how stupid he’d been,
especially to someone who knew what he was.
Instead, he flew over to where Neil was and asked, “I don’t suppose
you would be willing to cook some fish, too, after you’re done with that,
would you?”
“Well, I don’t mind, but I don’t know if there’s any in the
freezing room,” Neil replied. “Hey,
Arvad, since you’re not doing anything useful at the moment, would you mind
taking a look in there?”
“Sure. No problem,”
Arvad slid off the countertop and strolled over to the door and opened it.
He yelped slightly as the blast of cold air hit him through his somewhat
threadbare clothing, but he wasn’t about to give Edrea the satisfaction of
hearing him grumble over that after the way he’d professed that he didn’t
care. He’d just make sure he got
in and out as quickly as possible.
Of course, what he was looking for just had to be at the very back of the
ice-covered room. ‘I wonder how
they manage to keep it so cold in here? This
room must be spirit driven, too, just like the oven,’ Arvad thought and
reached up for a packet of fish. He
froze in place at the feel of cold, wet fingers on his shoulder accompanied by a
series of high-pitched giggles. He
turned with the fish packet in his hands and saw three female sprites that
appeared to be made entirely of water. He
gulped and laughed nervously, “Hey, ladies, I’m sorry if I disturbed you or
something, but I just came in here to get some fish...” Arvad began edging
stealthily towards the door. “And I really should be going now.
Bye!”
Arvad made a break for the door and threw the fish at Keefe.
“Here, you deal with it. I’ve
got other problems right now,” Arvad called over his shoulder as he dashed out
of the kitchen.
Keefe and Edrea exchanged glances and, finally, Keefe wondered aloud,
“Now what do you suppose has gotten into him?”
A chorus of laughter was followed by the three water sprites heading in
the direction that Arvad had gone. “Oh...”
Keefe said, grinning. “The spirits really do
like him, don’t they? I’ve
never seen them act quite like that before.”
************************************************************
Even though his back felt like it was on fire, Wein still had to eat.
He moved slowly and carefully down the hallway, glad that most everyone
had already gone to dinner, so he wouldn’t have to pretend like everything was
fine until he actually got to the cafeteria.
He sagged against the wall just out of sight of anyone inside and took a
few deep breaths before straightening and striding confidently into the room.
Soon, he realized that he needn’t have bothered with his pretense as
every eye and much amusement was following a boy, that Wein recognized as Arvad,
being chased around the room by three water sprites.
“Just go away! Leave me
alone! I never did anything to
you!” Arvad yelled.
The water sprites only giggled in reply and split up, one remaining
behind him while the other two tried to head him off.
Arvad saw this and changed direction, leaping onto a table top and
vaulting off the other side. Unfortunately,
his zigzagging, haphazard path was taking him straight into a collision course
with Wein. There wasn’t too much
Wein could do about it without causing severe damage to the dining area, so he
fell back on an old trick he’d picked up in an otherwise apparently useless
spellbook. With a single word,
Wein’s hand began to glow brightly and he moved it in an intricate pattern,
drawing the attention of the sprites away from Arvad.
Finally, he let his hand come to a stop, edgewise between his hands.
This effectively drew their eyes to meet his, and he asked softly,
“Now, would you like to tell me why you’re harassing this young man?”
The one on the right sniffled, “We just wanted to play with Arden...”
The one on the left looked sad, “It’s been so long since any of the
spirits have seen him.”
“And he’s forgotten all about us,” the one in the middle wailed,
bursting into tears.
“Arden? Just what in the
world are you talking about? My
name’s Arvad, not Arden. And I
don’t play with spirits, I play with knives,” Arvad said, removing a few
from their hiding places and juggling them in a circle to emphasize his point.
“Obviously, you have me confused with someone else.”
The three spirits thought about that one for a moment and, suddenly, the
righthand one brightened, “I know! You’ve
got amnesia! You’d better go to
Althena’s Temple and get help right away!”
Arvad’s fingers faltered in their juggling and the knives clattered to
the floor. That hit a little too
close to home since he really couldn’t
remember much of anything before a certain point.
But that had been at least ten years ago.
Surely, they couldn’t have been waiting for this Arden person to return
for that long, could they? Arvad
bent over to pick up the knives and took his time resheathing them before
replying, “I am not going to Althena’s Temple... ever.”
Then, he paused slightly before grinning and amending, “Unless such a
trip is required of me in my new position here at Vane.
Then, I guess I’ll have to. Regardless,
I wouldn’t seek healing for that kind of condition even if I did have it.
Memories get blocked out for a reason, and either they should return
naturally or not return at all. End
of story.”
The righthand sprite started sniffling again, “Does that mean you
don’t want to play with us any more?”
“Any more! I’m not...
Gah, I already said that more than once, so I’m not saying it again,”
Arvad said exasperatedly. “If you really want to play that badly, why don’t
you ask some of the younger members of Vane’s indigenous population?
I’m sure that they’d be thrilled.
Now, if you’ll excuse me...”
Wein cleared his throat. There
was a collective gasp from the watching students who knew what he capable of
doing when Arvad turned to meet his gaze. Unfortunately,
he had promised Edrea that he wouldn’t do anything, and he did keep his
promises. “I don’t see my
roommate, Keefe, out here. I
don’t suppose that you know where he is, do you?” he asked.
“In the kitchen,” Arvad and the three sprites said simultaneously.
Arvad glared at the sprites. They
merely giggled again. “Why me?”
Arvad shook his head and said, “Look, I’ll make you a deal. I’ll go back in my room, get my sitar, and bring it back
over here to sing a nice, long song for all of you.
In return, you agree to go back to your freezer so that I can have some
peace and quiet. Fair enough?”
With squeals of delight, they enthusiastically nodded. “Anything to hear the golden voice of the singer that could
make the magic folk weep with envy,” the middle sprite said, and Arvad
imagined that he could almost see the hearts floating around her head.
“Now, you’re getting way too carried away.
I doubt that I’d make anyone weep with envy.
Sheesh...” Arvad said and walked out the door, calling over his
shoulder, “Be right back with the sitar!”
Wein looked at the rejoicing sprites and shook his head. He cut off the light spell that he’d placed on his hand and
walked into the kitchen.
************************************************************
Finally, Neil put the finishing touches on Conch’s fish and nudged the
plate in his direction. “Have at
it... As soon as it cools off a
bit, that is,” Neil said.
“Oh, wow. Thanks,” Conch
flew off Edrea’s shoulder and settled down by the plate. “By the way, is
Arvad ever coming back for his food, or did those water spirit thingies chase
him off?”
“Ah, you mean your minstrel friend?” a voice queried from the
doorway.
Keefe grinned, “Hey, Wein, glad to see you’re up and about. Feeling any better?”
“....Not really. I just
didn’t feel like going hungry,” Wein replied.
“And what was it that you were going to say about Arvad?” Edrea
asked, an almost imperceptible edge to her voice.
“Well, he’s gone to his room to get his sitar.
It seems that the only way that those water spirits would be persuaded to
leave him be was if he agreed to sing for them,” Wein frowned. “Frankly, I
find that rather odd. Any normal
magician would have to get down on his knees and beg for a chance to even see
the spirits at all, and a newcomer like him has to fight them off with a stick,
so to speak. He hasn’t shown any
other signs of... unusual abilities, has he?”
“It only took him one try to light the stove, Wein. I think he’s just some kind of talent that managed to go
undiscovered by guild recruiters,” Keefe said. “You know, it’s possible
for that to happen if you live in an out of the way place.”
‘Like I was... Found by
accident when I was abandoned in the mountains bordering the Frontier,’ Wein
finished mentally.
‘I’ve got to change the subject before somebody asks just where Arvad
came from. Orielle might have
second thoughts if she learns he came from Reza...’ Laticia thought and asked,
“So... Does anyone besides me
think it might be a good idea to bring our food out to the dining hall so that
we won’t miss Arvad playing?”
************************************************************
It took a little longer for Arvad to get the sitar than he’d planned.
He sat for a moment and tuned the strings.
One of them felt funny to him somehow, like it was stretched thin and
waiting for the worst time possible to break.
“Don’t you dare break on me...” he said, thinking, ‘Oh yeah, sure, Arvad.
Like the string can really hear you.’
As he hurried back towards the hall, he wondered what he should sing.
A love song was the last thing he wanted to sing in front of those seemingly enamoured
sprites. They didn’t need any
more encouragement as it was. And
singing the song he’d sang back in Reza was definitely out of the question as
far as he was concerned. There was
no way he was going to sing the same song twice in so short a space of time.
Maybe a heroic song. People
liked those a lot, but could he think of one that just any old minstrel didn’t
know? He didn’t want to give
those spirits any excuse to say that he hadn’t done his best.
Maybe that one song that a minstrel, Chiron, had written a long time ago
would do the trick. It was really
in the first person instead of the third person unlike most heroic songs, but it
could work... provided his string didn’t give out during the instrumental a
little over halfway through. He
sighed, “Well, there’s nothing I can do about it if it does.
I can sing it without accompaniment if I have to...”
He walked in and saw that Edrea was seated at one end of the table with
Laticia, Alicia, and Neil in the middle and Keefe and Wein on the other end.
Conch was sitting in the middle of the table and smiled up at him from
his mostly eaten plate of fish. He
grinned back and whispered, “Hey, fish breath, if that slobbering of yours on
the strings earlier makes one of my strings snap while I’m playing, you’d
better cough up the silver to replace it. Understand?”
“Uh... Do would you be
willing to accept something that’s worth silver instead?” Conch asked. “I
don’t exactly keep cash on me at all times, you know.
It makes it hard to fly.”
“No problem,” Arvad said, and with that, he sat down on an empty
bench that somebody had thoughtfully dragged away from a table and began to
play.
In
deep shadows of the night,
Evil
works its fear...
When
most are put to flight,
We
must continue on.
No
one knows what lies beyond.
We
must find courage to press on.
To
press onward.
We
can’t let terror enter in...
To
weaken our resolve...
Looking
for the answers...
To
the riddles we must solve...
A
dizzying maze of illusions fair,
That
dissolve when held up to the eye.
No
longer waiting, beyond hesitating,
Marching
on to war.
The
price is dear, but some do fear,
The
prize is not worth the pain.
Summoned
to a tourney., continuing the journey,
Pressing
on towards the goal.
Eager
we may be, but let us see...
That
darkness won’t swallow us whole....
‘Okay, here’s the instrumental.
String, you’ve lasted this long. Don’t
fail me now...’ Arvad thought as he played.
The
destined battle will soon draw nigh,
Determining
our future...
Going
forward carefully,
Hoping
not to die...
Open
the door. Head to the fore.
The
time, at last, has come.
Banish
the fear. Take hold of what is
dear.
We
won’t fight this one alone.
A
clash of swords, slammed into the boards,
Trying
to overcome the strain...
A
song ringing on high separates truth from the lies.
Our
quest was not in vain.
As the last note faded, Arvad breathed a sigh of relief as the
appreciative clapping filled the room and he bowed his head in acknowledgment.
‘Yes... It lasted.
It made it. It..’
Arvad’s thoughts were interrupted as the string suddenly broke with a loud
snap, whipping into his face. Luckily,
he closed his eyes before it hit. “Ow... That hurt,” he said, feeling his face gingerly where the
wayward string had connected.
“Oooh.... Now, you really
need to go to Althena’s Temple,” the center sprite said.
“Absolutely not,” Arvad said firmly. “And weren’t you gals
supposed to be going on back to the freezer right about now?”
“Okay, but you’re going to need some ice on that you know...” the
center sprite said and headed back, the other two sprites trailing behind her.
“I do not...” Arvad grumbled. “And even if I did, there’s no way
I’m going back in there. I’d
rather face the gryphons.”
“Here you go,” a soft voice said.
Arvad looked up to see Thalia Ausa holding out a somewhat moderately
sized piece of ice. He took it from
her with gratitude and said, “Thanks. Where
did you get this from?” Then, he
remembered where he was. “Oh,
gee, that’s a stupid question considering that I’m in a city of
magicians.”
Arvad noticed Keefe’s expression was a mixture of envy and amusement
and Laticia’s... ‘I can
understand Keefe’s feelings, but what’s she so upset for?
I didn’t do anything wrong, did I?’ he wondered.
.