Chronicles of Kaely and Fentin chap. 3

        After we sat in silence for a few minutes at Kaely’s wagon, my father finally broke the awkward quiet.  “So, why is it that you don’t want our children at the academy together?  If they go, then at least they have each other.”
         
I stared at Melmarta, and my father as they started to argue about one thing or another before I asked a question to break their bickering.  “How do you know it was combat magic, and not storm magic like Kaely?  She said that pure energy was rolling off of her when she woke up, couldn’t it be the same?”

         The two of them stopped arguing just long enough to look at me like I had lost my mind, but my father just put up a hand  to hush Melmarta as she tried to say something.  “When your girly showed her sign the energy created a sort of field around her, and indeed did roll off of her and into the ground.  When you showed your sign…”  He took a shuttering breath before he continued.  “The energy rolled across your body, and into your hands.  Only combat magic ever manifests and flows directly to the hands.  The other kinds manifest in very different ways.”

         Melmarta looked incredulously at my father like he had just told her deepest secret to the world.  “Look, Marro, if it is his wish to go to the schools no one can stop him.  The issue of his mother does come to mind though.  We all know what she was capable of, and who she was…”

         “Don’t speak of her!”  My father interrupted.  “You know her name, but you don’t know what kind of person she really is.”

         For the first time, he admitted she was alive.  I don’t think he knew what he said, but there was this look in his eyes.  It was raw pain.  Even though they had been apart for more than fifteen years, it still hurt my father to think about her.

         “I apologize.  I didn’t mean to snap at you, but the pain is still fresh.”  He said.

         Melmarta looked at him with sadness and regret .  “It’s been fifteen years Marro.  It’s about time your son knew the truth.  About who she is, and why we continue to travel with you.  He knows you’re a warrior, but not what kind.”

         For another long moment, we sat in silence.  “Finish up, and meet me back at our wagon.”  My father said suddenly.  “It’s time I told you the whole truth son.  Kaely, you are welcome to come and listen as well… if your parents see fit.”  He said as slid a significant glance at Melmarta and walked away.

         When he was out of ear shot, Melmarta turned back to us with her usual composure again.  “Your father has been through so much, and yet he carries on.  No matter what anyone says, he is a great man and I am honored to travel with him.  Kaely, if you wish to hear his story you may.  But be warned, it may upset you greatly.”  She finished, and stood.

         I sat there, staring at my meal of cured meat and bread for a moment before Kaely took my hand.  “I’ll go with you…  if you want me to, that is.”

         “How could I say no to you?”  I asked.

         She gave me a huge smile, and pulled herself in closer.  Before I knew it, she kissed me and we both turned bright red, and pulled away quickly.  She gave me a bashful smile, and stood.  “We should go and meet up with your father.  You know he hates waiting.”

         We walked back to my wagon shoulder to shoulder, but in silence.  My mind was racing with possibilities, and questions.  There was so much I wanted to know, and yet I wasn’t sure I was ready for the truths.  What if my mother was a horrible person?  How could that be if my father had fallen in love with her?  What exactly was combat magic, and how did it relate to storm magic?  Was it possible to use different elements with combat magic?  The questions rolled around in my head, making it begin to hurt.
“Take the reins will you?  I want to find something.”  He asked a little distracted, and climbed into the back.

         I hopped up front with Kaely right next to me, and picked up the reins to our hauler beasts.  The creatures that lead our wagon were strong and smart beasts that were a cross bread between horses and oxen.  They were big, strong, and hairy.  They had an awful stench when they got wet, so we tried to stay away from water as much as possible… but during the rainy season you always had the stench stuck in your nose.

         “Fall in!”  my father called.  “We’re moving out!”

         Everyone fell into the line like they usually do when my father called them in.  The haulers grunted as I snapped the reins, and drove them into action.  Then we started trundling along as normal, while my father kept going through crates in order to find what he was looking for.  He kept murmuring to himself all the time while he searched.  Unfortunately the sound of the wagon and hauler beasts drowned out most of what he was saying, but every so often he would curse and slam a crate shut.

         Finally, after what felt like hours of traveling, my father came up and sat behind us with a small box in his hands.  “You ready to switch over?  I want you to be focused on what I tell you, because I hope I only have to tell you once.”

         I handed him the reins, and scooted closer to Kaely.  My heart started pounding as soon as I got close enough for our hips to touch.  “So what’s going on?  What did Melmarta mean when she said I don’t know what kind of warrior you are?”

         My father took in a long breath, and stared straight ahead at the road.  “What I am going to tell you isn’t nearly as simple as it sounds.  Do you understand that?”  He asked.

         I looked at Kaely, and then back and gave him a nod.

         “I was trained to be a Mortigaan Warrior.  A witch hunter.”  He paused for a moment before he continued.  “When I was a child, our village was attacked by a group of hedge witches that wanted more power than they could handle.  Only three people from that village survived.  Me, a young girl named Ashel, and Melmarta.  I survived because I hid when my parents told me to.  Melmarta survived because of other reasons, and Ashel survived because she was gifted.  Ashel went to the academy, and became one of the teachers there.  I think it’s because that’s the only place she feels safe these days.

         Melmarta and I went separate ways after Ashel left, and didn’t see each other for a long time.  I had this chip on my shoulder, and wanted to see those hedge witches in chains.  It soon became my ambition to destroy magic as a whole.  I hated it so badly that it drove me to the warrior schools, where I became a Mortigaan Warrior.

         After that, my troop and I set out to defend the Eastern Kingdom and hunt down un-licensed magic users.  About five years in, we had earned a reputation for our brutality.  People called us the ‘Death Squad’, because of our ruthlessness.

         Then I meet your mother one night.  We were in Irongrip, just west of Talonsreach.  She was beautiful, and smart.  She had a grace to her that I have never seen in another woman my whole life.  We were together for three months before she told me that she was in school to be a Sage of the Wilds.  My whole world got flipped upside down after that.  I didn’t want to leave her, but my duty still called to me.  I had fallen into a hole I couldn’t dig my way out of.  If my troops found out who she was, they would disown me.  If she found out I was a Mortigaan Warrior, she would leave me.”  He took a ragged breath, and wiped at his eyes.

         “So my mother was a sage?”  I asked.  “But how did I get stuck with this kind of magic?  Aren’t sages supposed to be healers?”  The words tumbled out of my mouth in a flurry of questions.

         “You have to understand that Mortigaan Warriors also have abilities that most people don’t.  We are the best warriors in the world, and have a more… subtle kind of magic than anyone else.  It is released when we are in battle, and protects us when we need it most.”  My father explained.  “So you got this kind of magic in a sort of conjunction between your mother and I.”

         My head was spinning, and I felt like I was going to lose my tiny lunch.  Everything I knew about my father had only been a fraction of it all.  “What happened?  After she told you, that is.”  I asked with a dry mouth.

         My father took another deep breath before he continued.  “I faked my death.  I chose your mother over my duty, and I would do it again if I were given the choice.”  He said flatly.  “We spent three years together after that, and we were happier than ever.”

         At this point in time, I was ready to yell at him for not telling me the truth.  I was so angry that he had lied to me all these years that I was ready to hop off the wagon and walk to Talonsreach on my own, but Kaely took my hand and gripped it tight.  She was my grounding force, and always had been.

         I looked at the small silver box my father had set in his lap, and wondered why it was so important to him.  “What’s that?”  I asked.

         He picked it up, and thought on it for a moment.  He then handed it to me, and tears really did start to roll down his face.  “These are the things that your mother and I had together.  I was going to give them to you when you decided to go to school, but seeing as you showed signs of magic already…”  He trailed off, trying to control his emotions.

         The box was heavy, and I wasn’t sure if I really wanted to open it or not.  But my curiosity won over me and I lifted the lid.  Inside were letters, notes, and two rings.  One ring was significantly smaller than the other, but they were made of the same metal and looked almost exactly the same.  The only difference between them as the engraving on the inside.  The larger ring had “To my love, Marro.  Love strong and always”.  I held it in the palm of my hand, trying to wrap my mind around the fact that my parents had actually been married when I was born.

         Pushing tears back, I set my father’s ring back into the box and took out my mothers.  The engraving on hers said “I am bound to you, always”.  It was simple, but showed how much my father loved my mother.

         “What happened to her?”  I asked with an attempt at a level voice.

         “I don’t know… she just disappeared one day.”  My father replied.  “It was about four months after her final exams to become a master level teacher, and only two months after you were born.  It’s possible that someone found out who I was, but no one ever came forth.  It was like she just vanished.”

         “What do you think happened to her?”  Kaely asked in her sweetest voice.

         Father shook his head, and wiped the tears from his face.  “I don’t know.  I
was so upset at the time that I started to drink my weight in sailor’s rum, and I lost track of everything that had once mattered.  I don’t think she’s dead though, if that’s what you mean.  I believe that I would feel it if she were.”

         There was still hope then.  If she were alive still, I could find her.  I could go through the records at the academy and find out everything I needed to know to track her down.  And then what?  What would I do if I did find her?  Hug her?  Hate her?  I had no idea what I would have done.

         After a while in silence, I finally built up the courage to ask the questions that had always plagued my mind.  “What was her name?  Who was her family?”  I asked.

         “Her name was Rosealine Wildheart.”  My father started.  “Her family was all part of the same roving clan that circulates around the forests near Talonsreach.  They had a very different kind of magic that most know.  It’s wild, and hard to control sometimes.  A lot of hedge witches come from similar clans, but never from hers.  Their clan always sent their children to the academy if they showed signs, and were proud to do so.  They are the Fel’shah Clan of the western wilds.”  He finished.

         “So she was a Sage of the Wild, and you were a Mortigaan warrior.  How does that make combat magic?  None of this makes any sense!”  I said, starting to get frustrated.

         A noise came from the back of my father’s throat then.  It was somewhere between a grunt, and a sob.  “Wild magic deals with elements, but are not normally set to s specific kind of element.  Taking that into account from your mother, and the kind of abilities that I have from being what I was…”  He was very careful not to say Mortigaan warrior.  “You have taken on aspects of both.  You may someday be able to use more than storm magic with your combat skills, but your strongest will always be just that.”