Jandar sat alone in his study. The great oaken desk at the back of the room was piled high with scrolls. Once upon a time, those scrolls contained troop movements, reports, requests for reinforcements, enemy sightings, battle reports, casualty lists, and recruitment rosters. Now they contained something far more troublesome.
Only a meager area in front of the general survived the onslaught of reports coming in from all corners of the newly united world. In the center of that tiny oasis of oak, peeking up from a rolling sea of worries, sat a book which the general had just finished reading. The magically illuminated lettering read Origins of the Four Realms by Archwizard Richard Speltzer.
Jandar smiled softly as he remembered the dedication Ruddy had written to him, then frowned disapprovingly when he remembered how Ruddy described Valhalla as a “backwater.” Then he sighed and reached to remove the book back to its shelf so he could continue trying somehow, someway to address Valhalla’s newest calamity.
Something glowing softly in the back binding of the book caught his attention. He’d taken it at first for more glowy, elf lettering, but it didn’t look like writing. He flipped the book open to its back cover and found, tucked into the back binding, a small silver card.
On the front was more of the glowy writing which somehow appeared to him in his language, but appeared to others in their own. Ruddy had mentioned it in his book as “Olythar thil-Eladrin thrylithar,” but Jandar didn’t put much stock by it because Ruddy had also included an Eladrin translation manual. One page was written in Eladrin with normal ink while the other had illuminated writing. According to the manual “Olythar thil-Eladrin thrylithar” translated as “glowy elven scribbles,” so the old general doubted if that was the lexicon’s real name.
Jandar didn’t need to look at the card for long to know not only who it was from, but also who made it. The lettering on the front read “drop me on the ground.”
A grin tugged at the edges of Jandar’s face and he tossed the card on the floor in the center of the room. The thing lit up immediately bathing the room in a soft silver glow. There, in the center of the room, stood Ruddy.
The wizard pulled back the cowl of his brown and green laced cloak revealing a head full of dark hair and gentle blue eyes.
Ruddy smiled, “Hello my old friend, I was wondering when you’d call.”
Jandar let the grin out fully, “It is good to see you again too, Ruddy,” he stepped forward to shake hands the way his former American soldier’s had shown him, “You couldn’t have arrived at a better time.”
Instead of shaking Jandar’s hand, Ruddy raised his in a halting gesture.
Before Jandar could get offended, Ruddy explained, “I’m not really here. This is an astral projection. It would take at least three weeks to make the trip to your realm safely, and–”
“--you simply don’t have the time,” Jandar finished for him, nodding understandingly, “I could open up the wellspring leyline for you…”
Ruddy was already shaking his head, “I appreciate that, but the difficulty isn’t so much the traveling as…other issues which have come up. You mentioned you could use some help though. Perhaps, I can still be of service?”
It was Jandar’s turn to shake his head, “Not unless you have a truly superb understanding of the food chain.”
Silence met these words, and Jandar hung his head, “Yeah, that’s what I thought.”
The head snapped back up again when Ruddy’s jovial laughter filled the room. The wizard seemed to be having the time of his life.
“What’s so funny?” Jandar asked, his head tilting sideways slightly like a confused puppy.
“I was a zoologist on Earth before I was summoned to Eladar,” Ruddy replied as the mirth subsided.
“Zoooloogist,” Jandar stumbled over the word, “zooloolgist.”
“Zoo-olo-gist,” Ruddy corrected, “Someone who studies animal behavior, got it?”
“I got the gist anyway,” Jandar had a smug expression on his face.
Ruddy got the joke right away and chuckled, “Yes,” he replied warmly, “Yes you do. So, what’s the problem?”
“Rats.”
“Rats?” Ruddy repeated with a disbelieving downward inflection, “The metal kind?”
Jandar shook his head, “No, the Deathreavers have all been exterminated or returned to their homeworld. I’m talking about the rats of Orevir among others. You’ve got to understand the scope of the mess I was left to clean up after Finarion banished Utgar to Malakathir. Hundreds of species from dozens of realms lived on Valhalla, some had formed families, claimed and terraformed land, or simply decided they liked it better here than on their own world. Many claimed they’d fought and bled for Valhalla and now had a right to be permanent residents instead of…well–”
“Aliens,” Ruddy provided.
Jandar cocked an eyebrow at him, “Well, yes actually.”
“Sounds like the US back where I come from. It sounds like you handled it?”
Jandar nodded reluctantly, “Yes, we ended up initiating a massive effort to find the biomes best suited to each of those who’d earned their place here and giving them a place to live there. We’re also in an ongoing process of developing new guidelines for waste management, and entire industries are springing up just to sustainably support certain races like the soulborgs for instance. Though the military already had much of the apparatus developed…the trouble is that those industries are in turn destroying the ecological balance in other parts of Valhalla.”
“But you can manage all that,” Ruddy replied, “It doesn’t seem like there are huge numbers of them, and with the wellsprings open, many of them will have access to resources from their homeworlds.”
“Yes, yes,” Jandar waved a hand, “That’s all manageable. The real trouble is coming from the one species everyone wants gone, but which seems to do extremely well in whichever environment it finds itself in on this planet…the rats of Orevir. Big, stinking, disease ridden. They’ve overrun a quarter of the planet already and will eat literally anything or anyone, even the insulation on soulborg wires. And they breed so fast that one individual can have 10,000 descendants in the space of a few months. By huge concerted effort and expenditure of much of our remaining military stockpiles, we’ve got them more or less quarantined, but we WILL run out eventually and then Valhalla will become–”
“Disney Land,” Ruddy nodded, “for a few years while they all eat each other or starve to death.”
“Disney Land?”
“Never mind, it’ll take too long to explain.”
Jandar dismissed this with a wave, “You get the point.”
“Yeah,” Ruddy nodded emphatically, “You jumped from one apocalypse to another. The solution to the first causing the second. What did you think was gonna happen? That you could summon all manner of bio and roboforms from across the cosmos onto one planet to fight a war, scattering their various biological and technological signatures across the surface of your planet, and you thought, ‘Hmm, yes, it’ll all work out in the end?’”
Jandar hung his head, “It was madness,” the great kyrie whispered, “all of it. We all had the same sickness. We called Utgar insane, but we all were.”
Ruddy gave that a few seconds to sink in then added, “Do you really think the rats are going to be the last thing you have to deal with as a result of this irresponsible summoning policy?”
Jandar shook his head and shuddered, his eyes taking on a haunted hue, his white, disheveled hair falling around an ancient face. Then hung his head defeatedly, “We won, thanks to you, and now we’ve lost. We’ve already lost haven’t we? We lost from the first moment one of us decided to start the cycle of summoning.”
Ruddy sighed, “It was dumb sure, but it’s not over yet. I’m sending someone to help you out with all this.”
“Why can’t you come? Knowing what you know now, won’t you come back and save us a second time?”
Ruddy shook his head, “I can’t. You’re not the only world in danger right now…actually they all are. Summary: Dude had this ancient pact with a fay and decided to break the deal. I found out the deal was BS all along, and now the guy is mad that generations of his family gave up their first born sons to be eaten by Rumplestiltskin, and now he’s trying to unleash demons on the entirety of the Nocturdrin who you call Drow, not realizing what it’ll unleash on the whole universe…sound familiar?”
Jandar’s wide eyes closed gently and he nodded, “Got it. What about Finarion Starweaver?”
“Engaged in the same. You’ll have to wait. Got it?”
Jandar nodded.
“Cool. Seeyah. Take care of yourself.”
The silver glow faded from the room.
Jandar turned back toward his desk, feeling the weight of his years. The wellsprings immortal gift, it seemed, still had a time limit, or perhaps he would just fade into a withered husk, trapped in a motionless, feelingless, sightless, deaf form for all eternity. The last gift to turn into a curse.
But there was hope. Ruddy had promised to send a savior…or at least someone to “help out.”
The air around him crackled with static electricity and he lunged for the hook on the wall where his battlehammer hung. Grasping it in hands still powerful for their age, he wheeled on the threat to find…
A young woman. She was sitting in his chair, munching on something. Curious amber eyes roved over the contents of the study, yet seemed to find him the least interesting thing there. Light brown hair streaked with silver and festooned with strange fragrant blue flowers cascaded around shapely young shoulders down to her waste.
“And,” Jandar asked, pausing to clear his throat, “Who might you be?”
The woman appeared to notice him for the first time. When she turned her head, he noted the pointed ears, slightly more rounded at the back than those of most elves were. The amber eyes seemed to mock him.
“I’m Miriel, Ruddy’s daughter, do you want some glowy mushrooms?”
Jandar eyed the bioluminescent mushrooms in her hand, and shook off the doubts about the true name of that elven writing. How much did he really know about the high elves after all?
“Ummm, no thank you?”
Miriel shrugged, “More for me then. If I could eat only one thing, like forever, it would be these.”
“That’s good to know…um, how old are you, if you don’t mind me asking?”
Miriel seemed to consider the request for a moment then shrugged and replied, “about seventy-two, seventy-three in a few months…basically still a teenager though sort of toward the tail end of that…assuming time works the same way here as it does on Eladar. What month is it?”
Jandar was too shocked by the age she gave to question the question and replied “June,” distractedly.
“Yeah!” Miriel exclaimed, “So a few months, like I–”
“Wait wait wait, pause!” Some of the old commander must still have remained in him because the young half-elf snapped her trap real quick.
“Your dad is human, right?”
“Uh huh, yeah he’s originally from–”
“I know where he’s from,” Jandar’s hand forestalled further verbosity.
“He looks not more than thirty-five, how are you, his daughter, seventy-two?”
“Oh, that’s easy! See, humans are immortal just like elves.”
“What!? No, they’re not,” the old general, experienced with many races, was quite sure of that.
“Sure they are,” Miriel retorted, “They just lost their connection to the Aeloric Source and all magic something like three thousand years ago when their monotheistic religions got popular and the Mother got relegated from a place of paramount importance to playing second fiddle to some human guy with a god complex.”
Jandar’s eyebrows flicked up and down. The war on Valhalla had lasted decades and exposed him to far more belief systems than he cared to keep track of. Miriel’s description was…actually not bad.
“Fine, fine,” Jandar waved a tired hand, “And your dad sent you here too…”
“Help with your rat problem,” Miriel replied.
“And you’re going to do that, how?”
“Don’t worry, general sir!” Miriel sat upright in the chair, raised her chest, and snapped something Jandar thought may be a salute, “I came prepared!”
She reached under the desk and effortlessly lifted a large metal cage onto it, scattering some scrolls haplessly in the way of its progress.
“What is that?”
“It’s a kindness trap!” Miriel exclaimed giddily, “We’ll catch them in this and release them somewhere they won’t get in anyone’s way!”
Jandar’s hand found his face, “You really don’t realize the scope of this, do you?” He sighed.
“At least tell me it’s magic,” the general mumbled.
Miriel seemed to think about this for a second, “The locking mechanism is…I think.”
Jandar carefully returned his hand to his side, “Well,” he sighed again, “It’s a start. Any other bright ideas?”
“Oooh!”
Jandar flinched. His own daughter had done stuff like that, but he never got used to how teenage girls could go from 0 to 60 in no time flat…which is exactly what Miriel was doing. The young half elf had pulled out an unassuming pouch which she described as her “bag of holding.”
The astounded general watched in fascinated horror as his office began filling with countless objects, books, scrolls, and weapons while Miriel’s mouth moved faster than Q9’s incredible queglix gun.
Jandar jumped back as a weapon clattered on the floor near his feet.
“Demon sword from Malakathir!” Miriel exclaimed excitedly. It moaned menacingly. More objects flew from the bag, “Snake charmer! I wonder if it works on rats? No better time to find out than today! Grandpa’s perfume!” She dropped her voice low and conspiratorial, “That ****’ll kill anything,” wink wink.
Jandar drew in a voice to below a halt to the now torrential stream of objects and explanations coming from the bag and the teenage elf’s mouth too fast to keep track of which came from which when the issue resolved itself.
“The complete cosmological bestiary!”
“Uh oh,” Jandar whimpered, “There’s got to be–”
He didn’t have time to finish the thought before a single heavy tome landed at his feet, the top cover halfway to open. Jandar watched it like a slow tragic fall. Ruddy had warned him to be careful with elven books as the beings were incredibly picky about their space.
The cover fell to the ground and the book went off like a claymore. Hundreds of tomes shot from its belly, filled the room, and spilled out the door into the hallway.
“That is all your ideas, I hope,” Jandar’s voice reached Miriel as a muted mumble.
“Uhhh, yeah, that’s pretty much it,” the diffused teenager replied.
“Let’s do this,” the voice of the general muffled again, “Pick out your three best ideas and put everything else away.”
“Are you telling me to clean my room?” Miriel shot back, her voice an odd mix and angsty and pouty.
“Noo,” the general replied patiently, “I’m telling you to clean MY room.”
….”Oh.”
There was silence for a few minutes, probably while Miriel sorted out what were her best three ideas, then she muttered, “Thalorveil thil-ara thil-balafir.”
Jandar stood next to the desk and looked down at Miriel’s three ideas. The kindness cage was still there. She seemed pretty attached to that one. Jandar dismissed it in his mind but gave the impression of considering it carefully. The delighted teenage half elf watched him intensely.
The second idea was the snake charmer. It had merit if it worked. Jandar could see an infinitely easier way of getting rid of the rats if he could just Pied Piper their asses back to Orevir, but Jandar was not given to “too good to be true” solutions. He’d try it, he decided, but they needed a back up plan.
His eyes fell on the third idea, and he stopped. Suddenly he wasn’t considering anything else. An old instinct forged by decades of war stirred deep within him.
“Miriel,” he whispered hoarsely, “You’re a genius!”
“I am?” Miriel perked up.
“Yes, um, I think the,” Jandar looked away from the third item, “snake charmer!” He picked it up and waved it meaningfully, “It’s a brilliant idea.”
“Great!” Miriel squealed, “Let’s go try it out!” She charged out the door and down the hall.
Jandar’s eyes fell back to the desk, and he scooped the last item from the table, shoving it inside his belt and covering it with his shirt. He started when Miriel popped her head back in.
“You coming?”
“Let’s give it a night. You must be very tired, I certainly am, and it's night. We’ll go to Anaheim in the morning. Deal?”
Miriel’s posture slouched and shifted back on her heel, “Fine. You may be tired but I’m not. I’m too excited! I’m going to explore your beautiful city!”
Jandar nodded, “Yes, the night life here has been booming since the war ended. Allow me to assign you an escort.”
“What?” Miriel snickered, “Are you afraid I’ll go out and find a boyfriend?” Her hand went to her face and her voice became mocking, “What will my mother say!?”
“I have no idea what your mother will say if you get into trouble. I doubt if Ruddy is sex negative and I’ve heard of your mother, Elowyn, by name only. But one thing I will not have, is any harm coming to a guest. I’ll assign someone ‘chill’ and close to you in maturity,” ‘or maybe slightly more,’ Jandar added to himself.
Miriel huffed, “Fine.”
Jandar sat down heavily in his armchair and ran a hand over his temples. It did little for the tension built up by the life he had led. He often wondered what his life would’ve been like if he’d never found the wellspring. But happy thoughts of a quiet home and a family were constantly shattered by the crippling knowledge that, even if that had been, it would’ve been torn apart by the war. Though a war waged by some other general, who may not have had his scruples.
And now the war was almost over. He had just one fight left…then he could retire. Maybe take a new wife, grow an orchard, or raise horses. He wasn’t sure about what came after, only what came tomorrow.
He had Miriel’s third idea in his hand. He doubted if she really knew what she was suggesting, she hadn’t had a chance to explain. Jandar didn’t think he needed her input on this. He cracked the book open carefully and scanned the table of contents…
Miriel loved the city. Her kyrie guide, Balfour, wasn’t too bad. She’d asked his years and he gave some number of moon cycles that Miriel didn’t bother to divide by twelve. She decided he was dumb.
“Sooo,” Balfour asked as they made their way down the street eating ice cream, “How does elf magic work?”
Miriel shrugged, “What makes you curious?”
“Well,” Balfour stumbled over the words, “I’m studying under Master Ulumi to use kyrie magic and I’m just wondering how yours works?”
“It’s long, complicated, and a little boring sometimes.”
“Tell me, please.”
Miriel sighed, “Ok, the super mega ultra stripped down version goes like this: The elves were created by human wizards at the end of Thil-Aran Anubador as the ultimate expression of the Aeloric Source, or ‘Mother.’ They knew that life is song and words are power and up until then the Aeloria flowed into all living things but had no real way to express itself directly on the cosmos. The creation of the elves led to the appeasement of Titanthros the dragon king and the end of the Age of Chaos.”
“Oook,” the blonde haired young kyrie replied, “Thanks for the history lesson, but like…how does it work?”
“That’s the explanation right there,” Miriel shrugged again, “We are the physical manifestation of Aeloria. If it helps, elves draw their power directly from the Aeloric Cascade using the words of our language which have been refined to better channel Aeloric power over the millennia. That’s why our mages are called ‘spellweavers,’ whereas humans draw their power from specific secondary sources. Their power is refined where ours is raw and needs refining through words. A human can draw power from their source, my father’s is animals, without the use of words, but it has to be drawn before it can be used and it's limited by the availability, capacity, and predilection of the creatures offering their power. Whereas ours is already in us, nay it IS us. It doesn’t have to be drawn, just spoken into the form we want it to be.”
“That…kind of makes sense,” Balfour fell silent as they finished their ice cream.
Music was playing and kids were dancing on the street up ahead of them. Miriel got an excited gleam in her eye, and started to pull ahead.
“Wait! Uh, didn’t your dad use words of power to fight Finarion and Jandar’s elite guard? He uses them all the time actually…that’s what they say, anyway.”
Miriel paused and turned on him, “Ruddy isn’t like most human wizards though, is he? He studied directly under Finarion Starweaver. Something that almost NEVER happens. The first and only human to do so. He’s also spent countless hours, days even meditating at the Aeloric Source. It shouldn’t surprise anyone that he’s versatile.”
Miriel reached out and grabbed his hand, “Now shut up and dance with me.”
Maybe he wasn’t so dumb after all…well, dumb yes, stupid no…Miriel decided.
Miriel met up with Jandar in the morning. Jandar was surprised to find her awake and alert after the night she’d had. Especially after the servants reported seeing Balfour sneaking out of her chamber at dawn.
“Your energy is as depthless as a wellspring, Miriel Ruddy’s daughter,” Jandar chuckled.
“Ready to go beat a rat problem?”
“Yes, I am,” Jandar smiled wider than he had in a long time. He’d found the perfect solution to his problem and Ruddy had inadvertently given him the idea.
“Are you going to teleport us?” Jandar asked.
“Do you want to arrive a pile of mush and bone fragments?”
Jandar’s eyebrows shot up in shock.
“Oh come on!” Miriel pouted, “It was a joke…sort of. I actually don’t know how to teleport more than myself over long distances. Only a handful of wizards and spellweavers do. I can teleport us to the well over there, but that’s about as far as I can get. Useful in combat, but walking is honestly faster as a means of transit.”
Jandar sighed. He had a backup plan for this too. He was a general. Of course he had a contingency plan for everything. Placing fingers in his face he let out a long piercing whistle.
A moment later a pegasus landed next to the young half elf, she climbed aboard and they were on their way.
Miriel chattered the whole way, but Jandar only caught bits and pieces of it. Mostly it was about the night she’d had in the city, and how awesome it was going to be singing all those rats away with her…homemade snake charm.
Jandar would’ve punched himself in the face, but that wouldn’t be diplomatic.
Eventually they arrived in Anaheim, a major city that had not yet fallen to the ever expanding radius of the “quarantine zone” the generals had set up for the rat problem. The rats were in the city already of course, but their numbers were too low to swarm.
“That’s a big rat,” Miriel commented, spying one of the creatures. It was the size of a basketball and Miriel was clearly rethinking her position on the “kindness cages” she brought.
Jandar closed his eyes to hide the roll. A moment later, a passerby took the rat out with a perfectly aimed knife throw. The kyrie retrieved her knife with a muttered curse.
“So where do we start?” Miriel asked.
Jandar smiled down at her and motioned for her to follow, “We start…where it all started.”
“Ooh, sounds intriguing and perhaps a bit dangerous. Will we be doing any spelunking?”
Jandar turned to ask what that was, but Miriel had already forgotten the question. She’d spotted more of the rats tearing into a dumpster and decided it was a good time to try out her snake charmer idea.
The music was actually quite good. Melodious, soulful, pleasant, hypnotizing. Jandar realized that, coming from a people and community whose lives and power revolved around music, it might be the loveliest thing he’d ever heard.
The rats ignored her. One stopped to scratch his ears, obviously in an attempt to get rid of the annoying sound, before going back to cracking open a bone for the marrow inside.
Miriel felt Jandar’s hand on her shoulder, “It was lovely music, and a good idea, but this calls for something else entirely.”
“You have another plan?”
“Oh yes,” Jandar responded, striding through a large doorway that narrowed out into a downward sloping tunnel.
Jandar seemed very sure of himself for once so Miriel followed.
“This is underground, yes?”
“It is,” Jandar replied.
“Then there is spelunking involved!” Miriel ran a hand along the wall. It came away covered in moisture. The water tingled a little bit, and Miriel felt invigorated though she wasn’t sure if it was from the coolness of the water or the coolness of the adventure.
Jandar shrugged it off. He honestly didn’t care at this moment what spelunking was though he figured it had to do with being underground.
The tunnel widened out into a large ocular shaped chamber. At the center of which sat a large basin of water.
“Ooh!” Miriel shrieked. Jandar winced. “A pool!”
Jandar caught her shoulder before she could jump in, “It’s not a pool,” he said sternly, pulling her back, “It’s a wellspring.”
Miriel fell silent.
Jandar hoped she’d learned something, or at least be scared enough to avoid jumping in random bodies of water without investigating them first. It could be just as dangerous jumping into an open leyline without knowing what you’re doing…as jumping into the big fish tank at an aquarium…or a river full of crocodiles.
“What do you need this for?”
“Your third idea,” Jandar replied, revealing the book.
“What!?” Miriel squeaked, understanding, “No no no, I didn’t mean for you to…I just mean I…I mean I thought…like maybe there was something on Valhalla that could be bred to…you know…deal with it…not…”
Jandar ignored her and opened to the page he wanted. He’d already committed the beast’s face to memory, he just wanted to make sure he had it right. Then he began the summoning rites.
It didn't take long at all for the first of the summons to emerge from the wellspring. In a matter of minutes, hundreds of cats were pouring from it, and filled the whole room with watchful, hunter eyes.
“What,” Miriel gasped, recognizing the species and taking a tentative step back toward the door, “What have you done?”
“Don’t worry,” Jandar replied softly, “they’re all bound to my will. Everyone I summon through a portal like this is.”
“You, you, you, you,” Miriel tried to put a sentence together.
“What?” Jandar asked then paled as the room began to fill with hisses and low yowowls of indignation.
“Cats aren’t affected by mind control…dip****,” Miriel couldn’t resist tacking that last bit on there, “They are independence personified.”
Jandar began backing toward the door as well.
“And you…you megalomaniacal, insane, jackass…you had to summon a few thousand sykaryl!...Valemdar is going to tan your hide…after they flay it.”
They both continued backing away up the tunnel. The sykaryl followed them, hissing and spitting. As long as they kept their eyes on the cats, the creatures didn’t attack, but eventually the tunnel would run out, or they would blink, and then they’d be surrounded.
“Jackass, jackass, jackass,” Miriel muttered over and over.
Jandar couldn’t help but agree with her. He should have consulted her…or maybe he shouldn’t have tried to solve the problem with another summoning. That’s what had caused the problem in the first place. He assumed he could summon an apex predator, tell it to get rid of the problem then give the cats some temptations or the Valhalla equivalent and send them back.
Nope.
As they neared the entrance to the tunnel, they heard screaming and the pounding of feet and beating of wings rushing past the entrance.
Soon they felt the warm sunlight on their backs. Miriel kept watching the cats while Jandar stole a glance over his shoulder. The color rushed from his face towards his feet.
“They’re here,” he sighed, “It’s over.”
He turned back to look at the cats while Miriel looked at what was going on.
Rushing down main street in their thousands, was a swarm of rats. Their ranks swelled as more of them left off destroying the garbage and joined their brethren in destroying life.
Jandar grabbed Miriel under the shoulders and launched himself into the air. Flying was becoming more laborious for him by himself, but he managed to get them to a flat rooftop. There he watched the rats pouring through the city while the cats hung around and watched with vapid disinterest.
To their credit, the rats left the cats alone. One particularly dull rat managed to tread on a cat’s tail. Jandar didn’t even see the cat move, but the rat rolled several feet spewing blood and guts from a stomach torn open from groin to chin. The cat went back to its thing, carefully cleaning the blood from its paw.
“I’m an old fool,” Jandar muttered.
“Don’t forget insane,” Miriel shot back, stamping her foot.
“Yes, that too.”
Suddenly, the air around them crackled with kinetic energy. Jandar recognized it immediately.
Miriel just muttered, “Uh oh.”
“Miriel!” A sharp female voice snapped.
Jandar looked up from the ground and found himself gazing upon the single most beautiful creature he’d ever seen. The she-elf had dark brown hair, eyes the color of autumn leaves just turning to red, and the sharp, striking features of pure blood high-elves. Although she stalked toward them, each step was like a dance of grace.
“Young lady, why are you here? I was worried sick about you.”
“You…” Jandar swallowed, “You’re Elowyn, Ruddy’s wife?”
Jandar stepped back sharply when the she-elf wheeled on him, “And you’re the idiot that drained an entire trophic level from King Valemdar’s forests without requesting permission. Oh, you’re in for it buddy.”
“Moooom!”
“Silence!”
Jandar never thought he’d ever see Miriel so cowed, but if anyone could affect it, it would only be her mother.
Elowyn turned her burning gaze back on Jandar, who wisely bowed his head. Elowyn’s eyes softened, “Children,” she sighed, “You’re both children.”
Elowyn folded her hands in front of her and relaxed. The tension in the air diffused.
“Will one of you kindly tell me what’s going on here? And I would like an answer to my first question, young lady,” a hint of sterness returned to her voice when she addressed her daughter.
Miriel spoke first, obviously, “Dad sent me here to help Jandar with his rat problem.”
Elowyn shook her head, “That’s about as likely as a snowstorm on Sulvidar. You must get the lying from the human side of you.”
Miriel’s gaze fell and Jandar looked questioningly at her, “...your father did send YOU, correct?”
Miriel avoided meeting his eyes or her mother’s and shifted her feet, “Well, no actually.”
“And what were his instructions?” Elowyn asked calmly.
“He…he sent me to find you and ask you to come here,” Miriel’s eyes were back on the ground. She had pouty teenager voice down pat.
“And you didn’t because?” Elowyn sighed, getting the truth out of her overactive daughter sometimes felt like pulling teeth. Granted, she’d have a much shorter teenage phase than the average elf due to being half human.
“Because I thought I could do it!” Miriel whined, “I wanted to show father and you that I can solve apocalyptic problems too!”
The sides of Elowyn’s eyes crinkled and she laughed softly. It was a warm, gentle sound like falling summer rain.
“Don’t laugh at me!” Miriel cried.
“I’m not laughing at you. I’m just remembering myself at your age, granted the memories have faded over the last millennia. But we have a much bigger problem now. Several big problems actually.”
“Aside from the rats tearing apart one of the few remaining metropolitan cities in Valhalla?” Jandar asked, trying to nudge the conversation back toward his most pressing concern.
“Yes,” Elowyn snapped, then quickly controlled her temper, “The first,” she went on quietly, “Is your rat problem, the second is the fact that a bunch of cats that don’t belong in this biome are here and NOT in their own, and the third is that you sir are categorically insane…which leads to the fourth which is that you pissed off King Valemdar and HE sent me to deal with you. So, you get the quandary?”
Jandar was speechless. He was the greatest general in Valhalla, but somehow in that moment, he knew he was completely and utterly outclassed in every possible way. Powerless to help his people or reason with others to do so for him, powerless to save himself should this elf princess choose to render him formless as well. He wondered if he ever was powerful…or just mad.
“What on Earth possessed you, to try and treat one invasive species problem with ANOTHER invasive species? Do you have any idea what the sykaryl will do if they aren’t returned to their Aeloric forests on Eladar soon? They will take over YOUR Aeloric sources like the wellsprings for instance, which by the way, are much more powerful than the ones on Eladar.”
“I…I’m sorry. How do I make this right?”
The scent of jasmine washed over him as the elf stepped closer. She placed a hand on his face and turned it up to look in her eyes, “Nothing,” she replied. “I understand that Valhalla is new to this whole wider universe, greater knowledge, realms, and a deeper understanding of magic. You’ve been isolated here for millennia, your leylines closed and hidden. So, nothing. You just need to accept there is nothing you can do. Humble yourself, and I will help you.”
Jandar bowed, “And what will you need in return?”
“One thing.”
“Which is?”
“Later.”
Jandar bowed again. Honestly, even if it was his life, he’d give any price to save his people.
Elowyn turned back to Miriel, who shrank back under her mother’s gaze, “You’re in so much trouble, young lady.”
Miriel, with wisdom beyond her years, said nothing.
Elowyn leaned over the railing at the top of the flat clay building and called out to a large black cat sitting by the doorway. Three others lay nearby looking about calmly as though scanning for threats but not too concerned if there were.
“Anvil!” Elowyn called.
The black cat looked up at her with yellow eyes and blinked slowly, “Anvil, come here please!”
Anvil took a moment to stretch long scaly legs and yawn. Not long enough to be rude, but plenty to let all and sundry know that he went at his own pace. It took him less than six seconds to cross the thirty yards of the street and scale two stories, his powerful haunches propelling him forward and up in a series of rapid leaps. Two rats that had the misfortune to be in his way twitched the last of their lives away in the street.
Jandar leaped back from the rail as Anvil slid onto it and walked more steadily than a tightrope walker to the center. The three cats who’d been lounging with him were not far behind and took up positions around him.
Elowyn reached out a hand and scratched his cheek. He blinked slowly to let her know the tribute was appreciated.
“If you have the time, could you please protect the citizens of the city while I take care of the larger problem? We’ll all be home soon, I promise.” Elowyn spoke in Eladrin. Jandar had been studying the language and picked up the gist of what she said.
Anvil yawned and stretched again, this time taking more time about it. Once again, just to let everyone know the whole thing was his idea.
Jandar covered his ears as Anvil let out a piercing yowl that carried down the tunnel to those sykaryl that were still Aeloric bathing by the wellspring.
No presumptuous stretching this time. The cats responded like the dinner bell rang and cut bloody swathes through the city, killing every rat they found.
Elowyn meanwhile looked up at the sky and whispered, “Thal-thralithar rythor thil-astariar.”
The sky responded to her command revealing the web of leylines and the Aeloric cascade. Elowyn studied it calmly for a time then began singing. It was the most beautiful thing Jandar had ever heard, and he’d thought that earlier in the day when Miriel was playing her homemade snake charm. He’d never wonder again why the elves he’d met almost never carried instruments. Their voices were instruments. If he hadn’t been wounded fighting Finarion, he’d have heard it before, when the war ended with the Eladrin Chorus.
She sang almost all the way through the night. Jandar did not fall asleep. He remained awake, listening, knowing he would likely never hear such a thing again.
Elowyn turned from the railing, “It is done.”
“Done?”
“The rats have returned to Orevir, the vultures are dealing with the ones who can’t, and the sykaryl have returned to Eladar. Except for Anvil here. You owe him something.”
Jandar looked down to find the black cat was looking up at him expectantly. He quelled the fear inside, determining that whatever the creature wanted, he deserved it, whether it be his hand or…Anvil accepted the scritches with the same aloofness he had before, then climbed down the building and ran down the tunnel toward the wellspring, his friends by side.
“And, what is it you wanted from me? I suppose King Valemdar demands some recourse in addition to whatever favor a humble child like myself can offer an immortal high elf.”
Elowyn just smiled warmly at him, leaned forward, and whispered in his ear before grabbing a very petulant looking Miriel by the hand and teleporting.
“Moooom!”
“You will apologize to the king,” Elowyn snapped, “Your father isn’t here so this will have to do for now.”
Miriel sighed and hung her head. She drew herself up as they approached the great root gates of the massive tree which served as Valemdar’s palace.
Entering the king’s audience chamber, she made the proper inflections and bows, “Sire, I’m sorry for running off like that. It won’t happen again.”
“You’re sorry, is it?” Valemdar replied from his silver throne. The king was a tall skinny elf with long red hair and a gold circlet for a crown. The crown pushed the hair on the sides of his head in. Miriel tried not to giggle when she remembered how Ruddy described meeting him as ‘looking at a talking pencil.’
“Yes, sire,” she bowed lower, “Very sorry.”
“Withholding information is almost as bad as giving incorrect information. A whole realm, with whom we are at peace, a realm that has been torn apart by madness in recent decades, could’ve been utterly overrun because of your pride and silliness…and you’re…sorry?”
Miriel did not reply.
Elowyn answered for her using the traditional legal language of the elves, “Sire, by your grace and leave, I understand the matter at hand is of utmost seriousness. Given that my daughter is not yet past her 100th year, I ask that you allow me, her mother, to deal with her correction.”
Valemdar’s eyes flicked to Elowyn, then he sighed and sat back on his throne, “Dismissed.”
“Thank you sire,” Elowyn bowed.
Miriel also bowed and opened her mouth to thank him. At a look from her mother, she shut it.
When they were back outside, Miriel threw her arms around her mother, “Thank you!”
“Don’t thank me yet, young lady.”
“Why?”
“You’re going to be pampering Anvil and his friends as much as they like for the next five years.”
“Mooom! That’s so unfair! They’re so needy!”
“Therapy?” Einar’s mouth hung open and loose. If someone had pushed on his temple the mouth probably would’ve swung back and forth like a pendulum.
“That’s what the elf woman demanded for saving us,” Jandar shrugged, “And frankly, I can’t see that she’s wrong.”
“Neither can I,” Aquila muttered.
Vydar shot her a sour look.
“Oh come on!” Aquila spat, “We’ve been trying to solve the same problems the same ways for decades now and look where it’s gotten us? A plain–er planet–in chaos and ruin, overrun with all manner of invasive species and deep internal rifts. Insurgencies breaking out everywhere, depredations by marauding bands of summons formerly loyal to Utgar, poisoning of the soil,” shall I go on?”
“I agree also,” Ullar chipped in, “Therapy may be exactly what the leaders of this world need if we’re to move forward and form deeper bonds of friendship with great realms like the Eladrin. We are no longer alone in the universe, the wellsprings and the war proved that. We need to be ready if our world is threatened again, and we need to build something that’s worth protecting.”
Silence followed these words. Eventually Vydar spoke again, “Very well, but who will the…therapist be?”
“Elowyn has offered her services,” Jandar replied, “It seems the favor she wishes of us is to allow her to do another favor for us.”
“Eladrin are weird,” Einar chuckled, “but it's a good and honorable kind of weird.”
