Miranda I
Miranda watched Liari and Charlotte disappear into the forest. As the two vanished out of sight, she stood there for a while longer, watching the trees, before letting out a deep sigh. She turned around and walked back to the library. Now that Liari was gone, the building looked larger than it had looked in many years. Things would be a little bit more lonely for a while. As she stared at the entrance to the library a hand patted her on the shoulder. She looked behind her to see Rimah standing there with a smile. “Don’t worry darling, we’ll be here to keep you company.”
Miranda smiled back. “I’ll be alright dear, every parent has to watch their children leave the nest at some point, don’t they?”
Rimah looked at her own son, who was hobbling after his father while laughing every time he failed to grab his leg and tumbled over into the grass. “I can’t imagine it ever being easy.”
“The older they get, the more used you get to the idea,” Miranda replied. “It’s still not fun, but Liari is a strong girl. She has her father’s curiosity and her mother’s charisma. She’ll do well in the outside world.”
“You knew her mother?” Rimah asked.
Miranda shook her head. “I know of her, but I never met her. Inari died before Fesquera and I ever met. I’ve heard that she was a very caring, beautiful woman. Fesquera would often praise her, although he didn’t share a lot of details about their history. He did tell me on multiple occasions how much she looks like her mother and how similar they are.”
“Does Liari know?”
“Probably. I would be surprised if Fesquera didn’t leave her some sort of note about her mother, but she didn’t bring it up to me. Before he passed away, the two of us made it a point to not talk about her heritage at all. And Liari was never particularly curious, so it never slipped out either.”
“Well, I hope she gets to that magic school safely, she seemed really excited to go there.
Miranda chuckled. “The Astrianara Academy. She’ll probably be disappointed in how stuck up those old wizards are. Fesquera mentioned on multiple occasions that he rarely got along with them. But there’s lots to learn and I hope she finds out more about herself.”
Miranda held Rimah’s hand in hers for a moment before letting go. “I have some laundry to bring inside, before it gets wet from the incoming rain.”
“I’ll help with that,” Rimah said, and the two made their way to the back of the library.
Shiraq was a quiet man. After observing him for the first hour of their journey, Liari had come to several conclusions about him. He avoided conversations and even when he was spoken to he would often just nod or give a short answer at most. He was very good at moving through the forest. So good that even with him leading the way and taking care of any dangers that might be in their path, the two women struggled to keep up with him. He traveled light, and Liari could see several tools and different knives hanging from his belt, all of them seemed to have a purpose. There was also a bundle of herbs and a torch and around his neck was an amulet that was the only thing that seemed a bit out of place. On his hand, running onto his arm was a large scar. At least it looked like it was a large scar. The scar ran on under his tunic and the end wasn’t visible, so Liari could only guess how big of a scar it was. The weather was decent today and they made an incredible pace. At this speed, Liari figured they might make it to where they met the strange fortune teller before nightfall. The sun was up in the sky now, but it wasn’t quite noon yet. After making it through a particularly thick part of the underbrush they found themselves in a small clearing. After inspecting the area Shiraq’s shoulders relaxed and he sat down in the grass, his legs crossed. “Let’s take a break for lunch,” he said. That was the most he’d said to them since they departed. Nonetheless, Liari and Charlotte were happy for a moment of respite. Liari wiped the sweat from her forehead before being handed a waterskin by Charlotte. “Drink something,” she said. Liari nodded and took the flask, taking a few sips before handing it back to Charlotte.
“Are we on pace?” She asked Shiraq.
He nodded. “If your information is correct we should be.”
“Do you go out into the forest often?” She continued.
“Yes.”
“What do you normally do?”
“Look for danger,” Shiraq replied.
“What kinds of danger?”
Shiraq’s eyes narrowed as he looked her up and down before letting out a sigh. “I make sure there’s no bandits, wild beasts or strange fortune tellers in the area that could hurt the village.”
“That sounds like hard work,” Charlotte said.
“I’m used to it.”
“Do you have a wife?” Liari blurted out.
Shiraq looked at Charlotte who chuckled. “She’s always like this, you get used to it.”
“I do, why do you ask?”
“I’m just curious, that’s all. Is she pretty?”
“What a dumb question,” Charlotte said.
“Why?”
“Who doesn’t think their wife is pretty?”
Liari thought about that for a bit. “I guess you’re right.”
Shiraq smiled. “She is very pretty.”
“Can we meet her when we’re back?”
“I suppose so.”
Liari smiled at Charlotte. “I wonder what she’s like.”
Shiraq closed his pack again. “We best get to move on, if we want to stay on pace.”
Liari and Charlotte quickly ate the remains of the nice lunch that Elder Grahm had prepared for them and got up to follow the nimble guard.
A little ways into dusk they finally came to the clearing where the fortune teller’s hut was. At least the clearing looked like the correct one. Instead of finding a fortune teller’s hut, there was a hole in the ground. It almost seemed like someone scooped out a part of the forest, including the hut, and completely removed it.
“Are you sure this is where you found the hut?” Shiraq asked. He’d put his bags down and taken out some strange tool that Liari didn’t recognize.
She nodded. “It’s in the right place and it looks like it.” She pointed at a nearby rock. “I remember seeing the mushrooms grow out of that rock, and thought they were pretty.”
“Well, it seems like your hut is no longer here. This is definitely not a natural looking site though, I suggest the two of you stay back for now.”
Shiraq carefully prodded the ground and looked around for signs. The trees above were still intact which was strange. If somehow something landed here it would have destroyed the canopy too, or if the hut flew up it would have done the same. But there were no signs of any damage, and there were no signs of a hut having been here at all. After walking around for a little while Shiraq seemed to conclude that it was safe enough for the other two to approach. He handed each of them a torch and lit them. “Have a look around the place and see if you can find anything that’s out of order. If you find anything, do not touch it or get too close, but come to me first. We don’t know what kind of strange thing happened here and if whatever caused it is still lurking.”
Liari and Charlotte both nodded. It was getting dark fast and Liari was doubtful that they were going to find anything. Yet there was a strange feeling in her that made the hairs on the back of her neck stand up. It was as if she were being watched. There was a presence here. The three split up a little bit and each started exploring. Shiraq was incredibly thorough and he made sure to check on the two women regularly to make sure they were alright. Although the strange feeling Liari had didn’t go away, it also didn’t seem like anything would happen. Liari made her way to the center of the pit. It was about three or four meters deep at it’s deepest point and it was quite wide. Liari tried to guess what could have happened. Maybe a giant scooped out a chunk of land and took it with them. But that would mean there would have to be footsteps nearby and there didn’t seem to be any of those. Perhaps someone used magic to smite the place, but that would have destroyed the leaves above as well. Something could have fallen from the sky, but that would have had the same problem. Liari wondered if it was possible to teleport a large chunk of land. When she asked Shiraq he just shrugged. Charlotte rejected the idea. It was probably technically possible, she said, but why would anyone do such a thing. It would take an immense amount of power for almost no benefit. Blowing up the place would be more efficient.
Still, something bothered Liari that she couldn’t quite put into words. Right as she was about to give up on the search there was a glint of something metal in the dirt. She walked over and shone her torch on it. It looked like a coin. But it didn’t look like one of the coins that Miranda had given her to pay for things on their journey, it looked different. Liari reached over and picked it up. Suddenly she felt her balance completely disappear and she fell backwards, sinking deep into a dark ocean.
Darkness filled her vision and her breathing became more difficult. It wasn’t so much obstruction, but it felt like the air she was breathing was heavier than normally, almost as if it were sloshing around in her lungs. After a few moments the darkness faded and Liari stood in a familiar hut. At least it looked familiar. It looked like the fortuneteller’s hut that they were looking for except everything felt slightly distorted. The air was almost wavy as if it was water and not air. Baubles and flasks on the wall were growing and shrinking and changing form in front of her eyes. Liari blinked to try and focus that but didn’t help. Muffled sounds surrounded the place. Alien sounds that Liari couldn’t quite place. She was tempted for a moment to open the door and see what was outside, but something made her decide against it. She looked around and amidst all of the strange furniture only one thing looked like it was in focus. A book, laying on the corner of a shelf towards the back of the building. Liari hesitantly picked it up. It felt heavy in her grasp. It was a leatherbound book dyed purple. The cover had a single word written on it. Maharis. Liari put the book in her satchel and made for the door. As she stepped out of the door she lost her balance and came tumbling down the dirt, finding herself at the bottom of the strange pit that was left in the forest clearing. The vague hut and the thick air surrounding it were completely gone. Was it all a weird illusion? Liari felt for her satchel and realized the book was still there. So whatever that was, at least some of it was real.
“Are you alright?” Charlotte asked. “I saw you tumble down, did you hurt anything?”
Liari shook her head. “My ankle hurts a bit, I think I hooked it behind a root or something, but I can still stand on it.” She put her foot down and grimaced. “I might have sprained it, I’ll have to sit down for a bit.”
Shiraq walked over after a moment. “Everything alright?” he asked.
“We’re fine, but Liari sprained her ankle so she’s going to sit down for a bit.” Charlotte said. “Did you find anything interesting?”
Shiraq shook his head. “Best I can deduce is that someone took a chunk of the forest and made it vanish. There’s no signs of a hut and although I can see some footsteps. I’m not sure if those belong to the two of you or someone else. Whoever did this is probably someone I don’t want to mess with.” He sat down next to Liari and started rummaging through his satchel. “But it seems like whoever it was, they’ve left, so they’re not a threat to the village as of now.” He pulled out a bundle that immediately let off a pungent smell. “Let me see that ankle,” he said.
Liari took off her boot and showed his ankle. Shiraq felt around a little bit and when Liari recoiled from the pain he nodded. “That’s definitely sprained, but it doesn’t look too bad.” He rolled out the bundle and collected some herbs and put it into a mortar before quickly turning it into a paste. “This might sting a little bit,” he warned, before applying the paste to her ankle. It did indeed sting a bit, but it wasn’t too bad. He wrapped it in some bandages and used a thin metal clip to hold the bandages in place. “Carefully put your boot back on and it should be fine. The swelling should die down quickly and it’ll help with the recovery. The only downside is that you might have to wash the smell out of your boot in the morning.”
Liari chuckled. “I think I can live with that, thank you.”
“Let’s have something to eat,” Charlotte proposed. They had been looking around for a while before Liari’s tumble and it was already well past dinner time.
“That sounds good to me, I’ll get a fire started,” Shiraq said. He pulled a bundle from his backpack and quickly got a fire going. “Did you bring that firewood from the village?” Liari asked. “I brought some of it, but most of it I picked up on the way here. It’s not always easy to find the right kindling so whenever I see some I bring it with me.”
“You really are an expert at this,” Charlotte remarked.
“I do my best.” The fire’s warmth was welcome and Shiraq cooked some of the fresh meat they’d brought from town. They ate mostly in silence and after they finished food and rolled out their bedrolls in preparation for an early night. After a while, Shiraq started up a new conversation for the first time since they’d left Larania. All this time the man had been very quiet and uninterested in his companions but sitting by the fire he seemed to open up a little bit and let his curiosity peek out. “You came from the library deep in the forest, right?” He asked.
Liari nodded. “I grew up there and Charlotte stayed with us over the winter.”
“What’s it like? I’ve never been that deep in the forest.”
“Why not?” Charlotte asked.
“No reason to go there. It’s always been a safe region so I have nothing to scout for.”
“That makes sense.”
“The library is a tranquil place, I suppose. I don’t really have much of a frame of reference, but as I grew up there I spent most of my time reading. Sometimes we would have visitors and I would speak with them for hours until they got bored with me. Fesquera would visit regularly and teach me about things. Besides that there’s really not much going on. So if you don’t like reading books, I don’t think you’d like it.”
Shiraq seemed to think about it for a while. “I think I would like to visit someday.”
Liari smiled brightly. “I can write you an introduction letter. You’d probably be welcome without one, but it wouldn’t hurt.”
“I appreciate that, I might take you up on that.”
“I’ll be honest, I was getting a bit bored towards the end of my stay,” Charlotte said.
“She isn’t a big reader,” Liari added.
“There’s a difference between liking books and doing nothing but reading all day every day.”
“There is?” Liari asked, only partially joking. They all laughed.
“We should get some early rest,” Shiraq said, “I’m not certain but I think a storm is coming in a day or two, so I’d like to get back to Larania before then.”
“I’d rather not get stuck in a storm either,” Charlotte agreed.
They cleaned up the remainder of their dinner and quickly went to sleep. Shiraq would take the first watch and he’d wake up Liari and Charlotte for the second watch.
When morning came, the air had gotten remarkably more chilly. Shiraq’s hunch that the weather would get worse was seeming more likely already. “The weather’s been a bit strange lately,” Liari remarked.
Shiraq nodded. “This time of year often sees weird weather patterns. It’s because we’re close to the mountain range to the west.”
Liari thought about that. “I guess you’re right, I haven’t really paid much attention to it until now, but now that we’re out and about it’s clear.”
“You get used to it, and once you move further west the weather gets more stable.” He shrugged. “How is your foot?” He asked Liari.
She carefully removed the bandages and the herbs and although it smelled something foul, the swelling had gone down quite a bit. “We might have to walk a little bit slower than on the way here, but I think I should be fine.” She said. “Thanks to your help.”
They packed up their things and rolled up their bedrolls. After making sure they didn’t forget anything, and doing a quick walk through the small crater to make sure they didn’t miss anything obvious during their search the previous evening they left the clearing behind and started back for Larania. The journey back was a quick one and although the wind was picking up and the air was getting colder, the weather was mostly still fine and it wouldn’t get really bad until later that night. After saying their goodbyes to Shiraq and promising him to get him a letter of recommendation before they left Larania, Liari and Charlotte made their way back to Elder Grahm’s house. Charlotte knocked on the door and after a few moments it slowly opened. On the other side of the door stood Stephin, Elder Grahm’s husband. “Ah, you’ve returned from your expedition with Shiraq, did everything go well?” he asked, as he let them both inside and closed the door behind them. “We didn’t really find anything,” Charlotte said while taking off her boots that had gotten quite muddy throughout the day, “but we also didn’t find anything dangerous, so you could say that everything went well.” She looked at Liari who nodded in agreement. They stepped into the living room where Elder Grahm was sitting in a reclining chair, sipping on a hot cup of tea. “Ah, you’ve made it back, I was hoping it was you two when I heard the knock on the door.” He smiled brightly. “Thank you for going with Shiraq, that probably made his job a lot easier. His wife will also be happy that he didn’t have to go out for that many days.”
“No problem, after everything you did for me earlier this winter it was the least I could do to repay you,” Charlotte said.
“I never thought I’d hear those words from a princess,” Stephin remarked.
“A former princess,” Charlotte corrected him. The mood immediately shifted.
“Well, have the two of you had dinner yet?” Grahm asked, quickly changing the subject.
“Not yet, we were actually hoping you had something for us,” Liari said.
Grahm smiled. “Well then, I suppose I best get to preparing something.
“So what exactly is your plan?” Stephin asked after Grahm left the room. “How are you going to get to the Astrianara Academy?” He sat opposite of them, legs crossed on the floor.
“I have a contact in K’Mirah that owes me a favor. I’m hoping to find him and he’ll likely know someone who would sail us there.”
Stephin raised an eyebrow. “A contact from before?”
Charlotte hesitated. “It’s a complicated story, but it’s not someone who had anything to do with nobility.”
Stephin leaned forward, “now I’m curious.”
Charlotte sighed. “My sister and I would often go to a local cafe in town, that’s where we met Kirat. Kirat was a charming man, a little bit older than Scarlet was. He worked at the cafe but he also did a bunch of other jobs. We struck up a conversation with him several times and a few years later I learned that Scarlet built up a close friendship with him. Her plan was to have a connection to the seedier parts of our city once she ascended to the throne and then use that to control that part of the empire. It’s actually really impressive. I know Kirat through her, and he helped me escape the city right after the palace fell.”
“Well, that’s certainly a useful contact to have,” Stephin agreed. “I just hope it doesn’t backfire.”
Charlotte shook her head. “I trust Kirat. More than that, I trust his ambition. He knows that this current usurper isn’t going to appreciate him as much as my sister did. I think he’ll bet on me if he learns that I’m still alive.”
“You’re more cunning than I would have thought,” Grahm said from the entryway into the room. “That’s good, keep that skill sharpened.”
Charlotte blushed. “It’s my sister that was the impressive one, I just picked up some knowledge from watching her.”
Grahm set down a plate of food and the conversation quickly died down as Liari and Charlotte were far too hungry to continue talking.
That night, Liari slept poorly. The strange experience that she had in the forest haunted her dreams. Should she share this information with anyone? And what about the book that she found? She didn’t really want to take it out of her pouch at the risk of anyone seeing it and wondering where it came from. After tossing and turning for several hours, sleep finally found her. She was woken up by Charlotte the next morning, well after the sun had come up.
“You were sleeping so soundly I didn’t want to wake you up earlier.”
“Thank you,” Liari said. She got up and got everything ready. After packing her bag and the small chest she got from her father, she made her way to the living room where Grahm, Stephin and Charlotte were waiting for her.
“Now remember dear,” Grahm said, “there are all sorts of people out there. It’s good to be kind and trusting, but understand that you shouldn’t blindly trust everyone you meet.”
Liari nodded.
“I’ve been trying to teach her that already, but she’s a slow learner.”
Liari blushed. “I’m not used to having to think about that, I’ll learn.”
“Well then, I wish you both good luck on your journey and know that you’re always welcome to visit our little village if you’re ever in the area.”
“Thank you so much for your hospitality,” Charlotte said. She looked at Liari. “Shall we?”
Liari nodded. They made their way outside and down the staircase that led to the forest floor. They’d leave the village on the north side. It would be about half a day of travel to reach the edge of the forest and the beginnings of the main road. Before they reached the edge of the village, a familiar face was waiting for them. It was Shiraq.
“I figured I’d walk with you until the edge of the forest, speed up your pace a bit.”
“Much appreciated,” Liari said. She pulled a rolled up piece of parchment from her satchel. “Here, this is the introduction letter I promised you.”
Shiraq carefully tucked it away underneath his tunic. “Thank you, Liari. Shall we?”
Both women nodded and they followed Shiraq through the forest, soon reaching the edge where they parted ways. Liari waved for a while, even though Shiraq had already turned around and gone back to Larania. Liari had finally left the Celeran Canopy. For the first time in her life, she was no longer in the forest.
Opal Kaharis 