Caharin enjoyed the offerings of the temple feast, even if she did not actively participate in the conversation. It was nice to relax for an evening without armor and weapons from time to time. She hadn’t occasion to wear formal attire in so long, the floor-length, backless, silver dress and matching silk blindfold felt both comfortable and foreign. Kane was making his rounds, thankfully in humanoid form, though she avoided contact with him. He was not exactly one she desired to converse with, even after a century had passed.
And certainly not in the company of one of his children.
After a time, the bards had sung their songs, the jugglers bowed and left, and the floor was open. A few of the initiates and students took to mock duels using training equipment. A dozen wooden blades of varying sizes lay strewn about, ready for a hand to show his or her skill.
“Master Kalistros! Markalis here thinks he’s the best sword in these halls. Care to teach him a lesson?” A young half-elf gestured toward a well-built human standing confident in the center, hands laid arrogantly over the pummel of the training sword he had pointed at the floor.
Kalistros smiled. “He thinks so, does he? Well, who am I to deny him his chance to prove it?” He stood, wiping his chin with his napkin and laying it over his plate. “Fetch me that greatsword. Let’s see what you’ve got.”
As the two parried each other, clearly neither of them giving it their all, but having a good time of it nonetheless, Kane took a seat next to Caharin.
“He’s quite something, isn’t he? Kalistros, I mean,” he said, still watching the match.
“He has skill with a blade, I will give him that. He trusts and respects it, and knows it will never fail him.” Caharin took another drink from her wine glass. “Unlike magic.”
Kane ignored the not-so-subtle jab. He understood her disdain for magic in all forms, though she had come to accept some minor enchantments over the years. “I’d like to take all the credit for his talent, but martial prowess must be in his blood. His mother is an expert swordswoman.” He smiled, glancing over to see Caharin’s reaction.
There was none. Not obvious enough, I guess.
“A war hero, even. As beautiful as she is deadly,” he said, lightly brushing a bit of ivory hair away from her face. She turned away. “Made quite a name for herself.”
She stayed silent.
“A shame he didn’t have her around during his childhood.” Kane leaned an elbow on the table, turning directly towards her. “I’m sure she could have taught him even more about swordplay than anyone in Amayas.”
“What are you playing at, Kane? Are you attempting to make me jealous?”
He sighed. If she was going to catch on, she would have. Rin never was one for subtlety. “Only that I was able to see our son grow into the man he is, and you did not.” He rose, sensing that she would not accept the child now any more than she did a century ago. He would leave her with the information and observe the results, as he often did with his students.
“Our…” She turned back to Kalistros as he returned to the table, grabbing his mug and downing the remaining ale before sitting, one leg on either side of the bench next to her.
“Kid’s got skill, but no one messes with a Firesmith.” He smiled wide and gave a friendly salute to his opponent across the room.
“Excuse me.” In one swift move, Caharin swung her legs from under the table and stood, gathering the folds of her dinner dress and hastily making for the door. Our son. The son-of-a-bitch actually did it. All this time… She stopped in the wide, marble hall just outside the dining area, leaning against the wall as the revelation threatened to buckle her knees. She concentrated on the feel of the cold stone against the bare skin of her back, the sound of laughter and dishes… and Kane.
The smell of ash and wine and sweat.
The sight of a small, magically-gifted person growing inside her.
The tears of anger and helplessness.
The heat as he drew it from her.
“Caharin?” She gasped and looked up. She had been hunched over, her arms folded across her stomach. “Something you ate?”
“Kalistros… No, no I am fine.” She stood up straight and feigned a smile. Get to your room before you fall apart, Rin. Do not let them see you like this. Be strong. “I just needed some fresh air.”
“I’ll walk you to your room.” He held his arm out as a proper escort.
“No, really. I will be okay.” She started towards the guest chambers.
“But--” He reached for her.
“I said--” Searing light assailed her vision. Kalistros’s strong grasp held her steady as her mind reeled, struggling to comprehend what she was seeing. Seeing. She reached up and pulled the scarf away from her eyes, the silk falling lightly to the floor.
Crimson carpet embroidered with gold design, intricately painted dragons of all sizes captured in a deadly dance on the window panes, armor and weapons from across Amayas displayed proudly along the grand hall.
“I knew my spell would activate someday. I’m glad I was close enough to witness it!” He smiled and continued, softly. “I told you that I could restore your sight, and I never waste words, or spells. The ‘magic’ you so hated isn’t just the power to corrupt and destroy. I figured by now you would’ve learned that much, Rin,” Kane said, with subtle emphasis on her name. He came closer and picked up the scarf Caharin and discarded. “I didn’t know where or when, or even if, but I wanted to give you a chance to truly see what you gave up on.”
She turned to Kane. He still radiated a spectrum of magical auras to her vision, but now she could see him physically. He had a commanding yet light-hearted presence with confident features that belied his intelligence. His skin was tanned with obsidian scales around his neck and shoulders, and he sported a wild head of fiery crimson hair. A surprising mix of elf and dragon, he was as handsome as he was unique.
“Are… are you okay?” Her head snapped to the voice, and she again gasped. Kalistros was tall for an elf, strong and broad of shoulder yet kind in manor. He had Kane’s inquisitive yet confident features, silver-white hair streaked with red, and the same brilliant golden eyes of the noble Nal’tressva House she once had.
He was a perfect mix of herself and Kane. Someone would have to be… blind not to see it.
“Kalistros… I am… I am so sorry.”
Kalistros stared at her. Kane had told him little about his mother, and he didn’t press given the circumstances of his birth. She had obviously rejected him then, but they had developed a mutual respect, if not a friendship, during their recent travels. To see her like this, confused, vulnerable, staring back at him with the only other pair of golden eyes he had ever seen, left him speechless.
“I did not know. I was… I was scared. I had lost everything in the war. I hated magic then, however irrational it was of me. I resented it for taking my family and my sight, and when I saw… I did not believe it would work, Kane’s spell. It had never been attempted, let alone been successful.” What am I saying? I have no excuses. “It does not excuse what I did, and I do not expect forgiveness. Just know that I am sorry.” She quickly left the two of them in the hall, making her way to the guest quarters.
“Caharin? Caharin!” Kalistros called after her, not yet satisfied with their meeting now that he knew she was his missing mother.
“Leave her be, son. She’s used to being in control of situations, in combat, in politics, in everything, but when it comes to her own emotions, she doesn’t know how to cope, so she buries them,” Kane said, watching her disappear down another hall.
Kalistros took Caharin’s silver scarf from his father and rubbed his thumb over the smooth material. My mother…? Snapping his head back to Kane, he asked, “You’ve always taught me that family comes with a sense of duty. How could she abandon her own child?”
“Rin lost her family at a young age to… dishonorable circumstances. Those same circumstances are what caused her blindness and scars. Nal’tressva was one of the noble houses of the elven kingdom once - the House of Magic, ironically. She was high born, but did not possess talent for the arcane like her siblings. Her family gave up on her, which is why she became so involved in the military.” Kane sighed. He had become so accustomed to Rin’s condition, he had almost forgotten the suffering it represented.
“You mean… not only was it magic that blinded her, but her own family was casting it?” Now I see why she’s so distant. If she couldn’t trust her own family, how much more could she trust people newly introduced? No wonder she has such a grudge against the arcane.
“Precisely. Her parents and elder siblings were summoning demons. She happened upon them as their spell completed. It destroyed their house, both literally and politically. The magi were killed, and Rin was left severely wounded. It was half a year before she even woke up.” Kane put a hand on his son’s shoulder, squeezing gently. “Women are fickle creatures; once scorned, they rarely forget, and Rin is no regular woman,” he said with a chuckle.
My mother. Someone I’d forgotten to care about, but with this right in front of me, what do I make of it? Blurred memories of his childhood flood his mind, searching for the moments he’d asked his father about his absent parent, and the times he responded with a story of the Heroes of Amayas. It’s so OBVIOUS now, argh, how could I have been so blind, like, he paused, like my mother. I have eyes yet could not see her right in front of me. He laughed, sadly. I’m more like her than my father, despite the all the time spent around him. I always wondered why I took to sword and he to powers I could not understand. Should I be mad? Furious? Again, he paused as he tried to reconcile his thoughts. Sorrowful?
Having grown up in these halls, he naturally made his way to his destination, all but ignoring the other initiates and members of the Crimson Blades, muttering to himself. “Duty, honor, greater good, what all does it matter if you abandon those who are supposed to be the closest?” Kalistros knew he had to sort this out before they were to continue their travels. The Fane of Rumination, he thought. There, I’ll prepare for the hardest thing I have ever faced.
Upon seeing their commander, the guardsmen snapped to attention and saluted.
“Lord Firebrand!” they shouted in unison.
Kalistros feigned a smile and saluted back. “Be at ease men, this is a time of celebration and rest. We’ve fought hard enough for a time. Let us remember our struggles so we learn from them, but also feast when victory is earned.”
Closing the solid maple door adorned with the familiar illusion runes signifying the chamber’s purpose behind him, Kalistros still couldn’t help marvel at Kane’s creation, designed by the arcane monk, Wu. The room, while simple in design and void of decoration, allowed time to cease and thoughts to seemingly come alive.
“Here I am, in this room, yet again.” Recalling the last time he was here nearly twenty years ago, he sneered. “Necromancers…” Forgetting his location, seven necromancers materialize around him. “Wha!? Oh… right…” Calming his mind, the power that his imagination had given the images slowly waning, he recalled his run in with the last necromancer and how an obsidian dragon, Kane, had saved him. Fire roared from above obliterating each necromancer, one by one.
Glad that’s over. I wonder if this is how dad always seemed so calm. I bet I made him come here often, he thought, smiling. As a child he asked incessantly about who his mother was, and how he came to be. As an adolescent he wondered how his father had so much strength to raise him alone, and why he had to; how he could stay focused on raising him and remain so patient. Growing into manhood the thoughts reverted back to whether he even wanted to know who his mother was.
“She abandoned me, why should I care now? She didn’t even believe I was alive! Makes me appreciate the order that much more.”
An image appears of Caharin, younger, but not significantly so, her armor less adorned and helmet lacking. The image changes to a group of travelers, and he recognizes Caharin and Kane, sitting around a campfire with a gecknoid, a dwarf, and a young human. The dwarf and gecknoid chat while the human girl stirs the cookpot over the fire. Kane ties a bandage around Caharin’s upper arm as she bites back a yelp.
The image shifts to combat somewhere underground. Caharin is calling out orders, pointing to tactical positions or enemies. Kane readies a spell as the dwarf becomes a large grizzly bear. The human girl and the monk spring into action, the quickest of the group.
Shifting again, he sees Caharin and Kane alone. He is explaining how his magic can restore her missing eyes and sight, if only she would let him. She refuses; she has already accepted her condition and does not trust magic to fix what magic caused.
More scenes from his father’s past came and went, some clear and some clouded. Battles, temples, snow covered mountains and haggling merchants flooded through the chamber around Kalistros, finally settling on a single scene. Kane and Caharin are arguing in a small house. No, Caharin is arguing. Kane looks more like he’s… pleading? Walking over to the two images, he tried to focus on their words, but stopped.
“How could you!? How could you leave and not even care!? How dare you show up now, when I don’t need you. I don’t care if you planned it or not. Were you not ever even the slightest bit curious if he ‘pulled it of?’ Duty, sacrificing your personal wants to secure the completion of a task. Honor, eliminating temptation to lead by example, even when people aren’t looking. Family, three things you never forget. Family is last because they are set aside the most! Was I cast aside because of a promise?”
The illusion couldn’t hear him, he knew. Still breathing heavily, he ran a hand back through his hair, mentally checking himself. He closed his eyes and took a deep breath, exhaling slowly. When he opened his eyes, he saw Kane and Caharin in some sort of cave, wearing simple traveling clothes instead of armor. Caharin was calmer now, following Kane deeper into the darkness. The image faded briefly before a bright, golden glow illuminated the two. Kane was channeling a spell from her prone form to a small vessel. An egg. A dragon’s egg, Kalistros realized. As his past father completed the spell, Caharin sat up, cradling herself in her arms at the edge of the stone dais. He walked around the vision to get a better view of what was happening. Does she even look at the egg once? Does she even care?
“It’s done,” his past father finally states. He watches lovingly as the gold hue fades and the egg is merely an egg once more.
Caharin stands without a word and simply walks towards the cave entrance. Kane catches her arm as she passes him and says something to her in a low whisper Kalistros can’t make out. She glances at the egg, and then, slowly, raises a hand towards it. Her fingers touch the ebony scales ever so lightly. He sees her brow furrow as she quietly gasps for breath.
She… she’s crying? He watches as Kane wraps one arm around her shoulders and kisses her forehead. She lingers a moment longer, then stands up straight, shaking her head as if to remove some unwanted thought, and continues toward the exit as the illusion fades.
Tears streamed down Kalistros’s face. “I’ve been unfair. I had no idea, but how could I? I’ll go to her and give her a chance to explain. After all, if she’s used to politics I’m sure she can. Maybe then I’ll finally get the answers that have been haunting me for so long.” Looking around the humble room, now clean and free of visions and memories, he promised to remember his upbringing, and set aside emotions for the sake of this woman, that up until now had just been a companion, a possible mentor, and friend. “How do I get out of here again? Oh, right... ‘Think.’” Kalistros leaves, heading purposefully to Caharin’s chambers.
Caharin sat at the dressing table in her room, staring at her reflection in the large vanity mirror. Kane’s spell had returned her eyes and removed the scars from her face, but she could still see the peach-colored hue of the spell’s aura around her. It would fade soon, she knew, as the spell wasn’t designed to be permanent.
A soft knock at the door broke her reverie.
“Caharin?” It was Kalistros. She took a deep breath and brushed a few stray strands of hair away from her face, wondering if she looked presentable or not. In all I have learned, I still know so little about life itself.
“Come in,” she said, uncharacteristically timid. Kalistros entered, a bit timidly himself.
“I, um, I’m not sure what I should say, or how I’m even supposed to feel about all this.” He raised a hand to stop Caharin from replying. “I do know that, before I knew who you were, I experienced who you are: a warrior, a leader, and a friend. Knowing that you’re also my mother doesn’t change that. I thought I’d be angry or resentful when I found my mother, but honestly, I just feel… proud.”
Caharin was relieved, but confused. “Proud?”
“Everyone knows my father. A hero of Amayas, a half-dragon who commands magic unlike any other living being. ‘The son of Kane’ they called me, more often than my real name. I wondered about my mother a lot. Was she a hero in her own right? Was she a dragon? A mage? A commoner? A whore? My father knew, but refused to tell me her name. I resented him for it, but I understand now. I’m not angry. I’m proud to be the son of Firesmith and Nal’tressva. I just wish I had known you sooner.”
“Kalistros…” She stood, noticing the aura around her fading. “I know it does not mean much now, but had I known you survived, had I not been so stubborn about magic, I would have stayed.” She raised a hand to his cheek, feeling the scars slowly re-manifest around her eyes. “I have regretted my decision for nearly a century, but was too cowardly to seek out Kane. I am grateful fate brought us together again.”
Her vision dimming back to the familiar void, Kalistros watched in curious shock. He knew she’d been scarred, but the extent of her condition had always been hidden behind her scarf. The beautiful golden eyes and perfect features became empty sockets surrounded by cracked, discolored burn scars. As the magic faded, he raised the cloth, set it over her missing eyes, and pulled her close to tie it.
Hesitantly, she embraced him.
“Caharin, I know little about your past, but I know your family is gone. Why not let us be your family now?”
“That is more terrifying than all the demons and devils I have faced,” she replied, “but I am willing to give it a try.”
