Hunter's Beginning (Veller) (36 page)

-
Child you must keep on track if you want me to explain anything.-

“Yeah but you keep throwing all these words at me that I’ve never heard before, how am I suppose to understand what you
’re talking about.”

Kile could feel the crow impatiently tapping on her head.

“Okay, okay, tell me… about the alverie.”

-
Fine, from what I have learned, there were two races or clans, the Lys-alverie or the sun walkers in the royal tongue, and the Morke-alverie otherwise known as the star or moon walkers. They’ve lived in this area, what is now the Kingdom of Aru long before the vir arrived. They welcomed the coming of the vir, helped them get settled, they even worked together to drive off the uhyre, But, as all things go, the vir and the alverie learned that their different philosophies didn’t mix and eventually the alverie left Aru. Now, we mustn’t keep Morgan waiting.-

“Was it better here before the vir arrived?”

-Child, I am a bird, not at an oracle, I wasn’t around back then. How would I know?-

“Sorry.” Kile said as she headed for the back door. “What are
the…”

-
Not another question.-

“I was just going to ask about the
croceus.”

-
Why am I not surprised?-

The
crow sighed, if crows could sigh that is.

-
Morgan is a member of the croceus; they are a foolish bunch of mystics who are influenced by more than two spheres and quite a bit of alcohol. They have a lot of time on their hands and they dabbled in just about every subject in a vain attempt to link everything together under one unifying theory, though, for the life of me, I can’t understand why.-

“It sounds… pointless.”

-It is, but that is why you are important to him.-

“Me?”

-You do not fit the mold, you are outside the norm and therefore could either destroy everything that they have spent so many years putting together, or provide a missing piece to their puzzle.-

“Am I… that much of a problem? Should I be worried?”

-Believe me child, they would be happy either way it turns out. They live for the search, not the solution.-

The moment the back doors were open
ed, Kaza took off from Kile’s hat and made a direct line towards Morgan’s tower. She wasn’t sure if Kaza was eager to get into the warmth or away from her questions, either way she was left to battle the snow alone. When she finally did get to the tower, she didn’t bother knocking; she just pushed the door open and stumbled in.

“It’s about time you got here.” Morgan replied from inside. “I was afraid you’d fail
the test.”

The heat was intense, more so
than she remembered but it was nice to finally get warm. She took off her hat and cloak, shook off the snow, hung them on the wall and walked into the main room. Morgan was sitting in his overstuffed wingback chair sipping a cup of what she now knew to be rosemary tea laced with rum, he indicated for her to take the other seat.

“What test was that sir?” She asked as she fell into the chair.

“I simply instructed Nullus to fetch you, if he could truly understand the common tongue and you could understand him, then you would receive the message. As you took so long, I wasn’t sure if it was Nullus who couldn’t understand or you.”

“Sorry sir, it was my fault, we stopped at the great hall to talk.” She said, and then realized how odd a statement that was under the circumstances.

“Did you now? And what did you talk about?”

“Just… stuff, a lot of things actually, things about the
Hunters, the alverie, the vir, even about the croceus.”

“You know about the
croceus?” Morgan asked, raising an eyebrow, “What do you know of the croceus?”

“Not much sir.” She replied cautiously
, was she supposed to know anything about it?

“Come now, what did Nullus tell you.”

“He said the croceus was a group of wise mystics who were trying to find the unifying theory that links everything together.”

“Did he now?” Morgan grinned.

-I said no such thing, wise indeed.-

Protested a rather irate bird
from his perch on top the bookshelves.

“The reason that I wanted to see you was to show you this.” Morgan said as he set a rather large and dusty book on
the table that wasn’t there. We’re not really going through this again are we? Kile wondered as she looked under the book that was now suspended in mid air. She had hoped she left all that freaky stuff about invisible furniture back in the mystic’s tower. Carefully taking the book, she opened it up to a random page, but knew what she would find before she even looked. The pages were all hand written in a very bold print, but the writing was unreadable. She looked over at Morgan who appeared to be waiting for her to say something.

“What does it say sir?”

“Oh… I’m sorry.” He said as he reached over and took the book from her. Did he really think she could read something like that? She couldn’t even make out the characters let alone the words.

“I sometimes forget.” He said as he closed the book and set it back on the
table that wasn’t there. “I found it in the library, some years ago, but I hadn’t given it much thought until now. It was one of the reasons that I return to the tower.”

“One of the reasons sir?”

“That’s not important just now.” Morgan said, waving it off, but Kile got the feeling that it was very important, just not something for her to know about. “The book tells of an… alva with certain gifts.”

“An
alva sir?”

“Yes an alva, of course Nullus told you all about the alverian race.”
Morgan said as he gave the bird a curious look. Kaza just ruffled his feathers and turned his back to the old mystic. It was a good thing those two couldn’t communicate Kile thought, otherwise there would be a never ending argument.

“Not all that much sir.”

“Well this particular… alva was of the sun walkers.”

“The
Lys-alverie?”

Morgan gave Kaza another look.

“Really sir, it wasn’t all that much.” She replied, although it was kind of hard to keep from grinning. Kile realized that Morgan was looking at the crow that he kept as a pet in a whole new light. The old mystic would now have to be more careful of what he said around Kaza, or any animal for that matter, and it was making him a tad bit uncomfortable.

“Regardless.” The mystic finally said, as he turned his gaze back to Kile. “
This alva was documented to have had a unique ability to communicate with nature. It is said she could… speak with the animals.”

“Who was she sir? What was her name?”
Kile asked eagerly.

“I’m afraid it doesn’t give much personal information. It’s more about her abilities.”

“Sorry sir.” Kile apologized as she slumped back in her chair.

“I do understand.” Morgan replied softly. “But I tend to forget.”

“Sir?”

“You’re going through a lot Kile. You feel like you don’t fit in at home, you couldn’t fit in at the tower, and now you don’t even fit in at the academy. You’re striving to make a connection with something, anything, even if it is across the ages. I’m not going to tell you that things will get easier from this moment on, they won’t. In fact I fear that things in general are going to get a lot worse, but what you have to concentrate on, is the here and now. You have a gift that no other
Hunter has ever had before you. You can let it control you, or you can control it, it’s your choice.”

“I want to control it.”

“Very well.” Morgan smiled. “There are several… abilities that were stated in the text that I think merit testing, to see how similar your gifts are with that of the alva.”

“So, what are they?” She asked.

“Well, let’s see.” Morgan said as he got to his feet, taking the book with him. He set it on his desk and began to scan through the pages. “Well, since we already know you can communicate with certain animals, we’ll try this one.” He said tapping the pages as he turned around. “Have you ever spoken with a plant?”

“Oh wonderful.” Kile replied as she flopped back in her chair.

They spent the next
three hours in the attempt to communicate with every plant that Morgan had in his possession, from his beloved African violets to a Heartleaf Brunnera and even a Hearty Dagger Leafed fern that hung in the corner. She even spent a few minutes trying to converse with the rosemary, but never received so much as whisper in reply from any of them. It was rather disappointing, since the alva in the text was able to receive messages through plants, some from miles away. The idea of being able to hear what was happening back home by tuning into a corn stalk or listening to the carrots would have been an interesting ability, but in some ways Kile was glad. If she was able to speak with the vegetables, she would have a hard time eating them, and then where would that leave her.

“Still nothing.” Morgan sighed as he took the plant away. Kile felt like apologizing, but wasn’t sure what she was
apologizing for.

“I’m sorry.” She said anyway.

“It’s not you child, you tried, you just can’t communicate with plants. What you have might not be the same ability as what is described in the text.”

-
Of course it is the dead of winter, plants do sleep.-

“There’s a scary thought.” Kile replied.

“What’s that?”

“Kaza just suggested that plants sleep in the winter.”

“Well, that is a possibility; maybe we should try this test again, sometime in the spring I think. Plants should be active then. Is Nullus in agreement?”

“Yeah, but he really wishes you wouldn’t call him Nullus.”

“I’ve been calling him Nullus ever since Black gave him to me.”

“Yeah, but he says his name is Kaza.”

“Fine, I will call him Kaza from now on.” Morgan promised as he flopped into his chair.

“I should probably get going.” Kile replied, although the thought of making her way back to the dinning hall was not very appealing.

“Won’t you stay for supper; it’s only stew but its better fare than what you’ll get in the hall.”

“Well… yeah if you don’t mind.”

“Child, if I minded, would I have suggested it?” Morgan replied as he rose from his overstuffed wingback chair and reached into the sphere of fire. His hands and arms disappeared into the flames and when he pulled them back out he was holding a large black pot. He set it down on the table that still wasn’t there and removed the lid. The room was instantly filled with the aroma of stew and Kile realized she was a lot hungrier than she had thought. He produced two bowls, from where she could not tell and began to ladle out a serving in each one. He handed one to her and then returned to the comfort of his chair.

The bowl was a lot hotter
than she thought and she had to set it down on the edge of the table that still wasn’t there, of course she had to find the edge of the table first. A year ago this would have been incredibly out of the ordinary, now she was starting to get used to it.

The stew was a mixture of vegetables and meat with a few spices and herbs thrown in for taste. It was a bit strong on rosemary, but she wasn’t all that surprised.

“It’s my mother’s recipe.” Morgan replied as if reading her mind.

“Your mother?” She asked.

“I did have one you know.” Morgan said, raising an eyebrow, “But not for long.”

“What happen?”

“The red illness took her, which was… I don’t know, so many years ago, I think I was eight at the time. I grew up pretty much on my own after that, until the mystics found me.” He said, falling silent as he stared into the fire. It seemed everyone had a hard life Kile thought as she watched him.

“I never knew that
the things I could do were… out of the ordinary. My mother never told me. You see we lived in a small house just outside of town. My mother was a kind of healer back then, I don’t think there was much of the mystic arts involved, I think it was mostly just common sense. The town’s people, they avoided us, thought she conversed with the Oni, but if they needed help or someone was sick they came running. She never turned them away, of course when she became ill, they never came. It was almost three years later that the Mystics arrived, when they saw what I could do they took me back to the tower, not that the town’s people cared, I think they were quite happy to be rid of me.”

“What town was that sir?” Kile asked after a moment of silence. Morgan looked up as if he had just realized she was talking.

“You know, I don’t remember. Funny that.” He said as he set his bowl down.

Subject changing time Kile thought.

“Sir, earlier you mentioned something about things in general getting worse before they get better. What did you mean by that?”

“Well.” He said as he stared at her. She had the impression that he was separating facts, what he could tell her and what he shouldn’t. “There have been a lot of skirmishes on the western front lately. Nothing really major at the moment, but the
uhyre appears to be acting up, and there have been some rumors that people have seen brunrik on the border along with the valrik, and that the uhyre may actually be organizing.”