Excerpt from Alexan’s Ninth Journal, The Great Crusade.

The most difficult part of combat between the different elemental races is always being unpredictable. Drakoren and Kruxt like intense combat and glorious charges. Lume, when they bother to involve themselves, engage in precise, accurate and limited strikes. Dwarves and Galm are both partial to fancy weapons and fortifications. Erlkin and Ashkey hate straightforward engagements, always striking from the shadows. And of course, Pelagiajell and Kampos are undisputed lords of the waters.

Gnomes and Giants aren’t elementals, but Gnomes are the representatives of the Unsown races, and Giants are the most impressive of the Barren. Gnomes can fit in with any tactic thanks to their even distribution of elements, and Giants are just incredibly strong and durable.

Combine the adaptability of the Gnomes with the Endurance of the Giants and you get Humans. It’s been an unpleasant realization for the rest of those fools to realize just how dangerous we are.

Unnamed Talkarn

While the leaf bear had provided a powerful distraction, now that it was a couple of hours behind them, Tal’s mind had been able to wander back to the short conversation he’d shared with Easil the night before.

“You want to meet her,” Easil had told him.

At first Tal had questioned the idea, but the more he’d thought about it through the day, the more true it was. Realizing that had made Tal think a bit more deeply about just how much Nolsa was sinking into the telling of Alamia’s life story.

He’d noticed that, unlike Nolsa, he didn’t need to use dark mana. He wasn’t sure why this was the case, but it seemed to be the will behind it that mattered for him. So Tal took a deep breath, then started speaking, his voice and breath as saturated with aether as he could manage.

“I always found it funny how Alamia never liked the little brown snakes,” Tal mused, plucking an idea from the air. Or perhaps from his own experience.

Nolsa picked up on what he was doing without hesitation. “She never did. I hadn’t expected her to have a problem with them; the little things around Lisnail were always so docile.”

“Even funnier when she had no problem with rats,” Tal said with a laugh. “Or squirrels or any other little fuzzy things.”

“Maybe that’s the difference,” Layessa mused. “She’s fine with the small things as long as they are fuzzy? Snakes are more silky and coily.”

Nolsa laughed before she resumed talking. “Hmm, that does sound right. She always liked minks after all. Those little animals are almost as flexible as snakes and have beady eyes too, but Alamia loves them.”

“That wyrm would probably have terrified her,” Easil joked.

“The pale wyrm terrified me!” Tal replied. “We probably don’t want to mention it to her. I don’t think Alamia would appreciate that.”

“Fair point,” Easil agreed.

“I remember Alamia actually screaming when a brown snake dropped onto her shoulder,” Nolsa giggled. “Seeing a great pale wyrm may have frozen her into a statue.”

“Hopefully we can avoid finding out,” Tal mused. "The more trouble we can avoid, the happier I'll be."

"Son,” Easil said with a sigh, "the older you get, the more it feels like trouble is just looking for you."

"Really?" Tal asked.

"Only the Incarnates know," Layessa answered.

"Let us not get too distracted," Nolsa warned. "We still have several hours of hiking ahead of us.

"Yuuuup," Tal replied, unsuccessfully hiding how excited he was at the thought of more walking.

Nolsa slid her hand into Tal's and gave it a squeeze before letting go a moment later. Tal didn't think himself the wisest by any means, but he understood a 'thank you' when one was offered.

Night fell without them being able to shelter in another derelict building. There was no mining hut lost to time on this bough.

Instead they'd been forced to take cover in a hollow in the wood. The problem wasn't actually finding a hollow, it was finding one that didn't lead into the tunnels within the main limb. No one wanted to be vulnerable to the critters outside and inside the wood.

So they huddled down as the dim world outside their shelter dimmed further as night fell.

Currently, they were roasting a chunk of winghound meat over a makeshift spit with Tal maintaining another fireball. Nolsa was sitting next to Tal and slowly turning the handle on the spit to cook the meat. Layessa was standing on Tal’s other side, supervising Tal’s fireball. Easil was resting across from them, a little further back from the fire while recovering his strength.

"The best part of heating food with mana," Layessa explained, "is that mana fire doesn’t smoke. In order to create smoke, you have to burn fuel."

Tal was finding the fire easier to maintain this time, which gave him the leeway to converse. "So wardens or hunters can't see it?"

"Yes and no," Layessa replied. "Fire mana creates a heat haze that can be seen from a distance, and of course it still glows."

"Just no smoke? That doesn't seem that useful." Tal said with a frown.

Layessa laughed, then set about correcting Tal. "Heh, 'not that useful,' he says. Listen, smoke is a problem. For us right now? That would create a flag reaching up to the dome. And that's before you get to the problem of how smoke replaces all the fresh air. If we have to camp inside the tree, that's an issue. People have died from smoke."

"Oh, I never realized," Tal admitted.

Layessa wasn't interested in rubbing Tal’s ignorance in his face. "Well, it isn't like you've had a need to know. We all know mana tends to follow its own set of rules, we just don't always know what those rules are."

"Speaking of rules," Nolsa interjected, interrupting Layessa's informal lesson, "is this the first time the Gnomes have involved themselves like you have, Layessa?"

Layessa laughed. "On the contrary, I bet you Darisen thinks we put you up to this Nolsa."

"Elder Darisen only mentioned the shadow to me," Tal noted. “He didn’t talk about people hiding from him.”

"But he did talk about people 'manipulated by the shadow,’ right?" Layessa asked. "We’ve got our own records hidden away where no Erlkin can go. Now, I’ve never been privy to those records, but I’ve heard the old Gnomes complain about Darisen’s… ‘imaginary shadow monster’ before. There’s never been any doubt about him lying among the old Gnomes.”

Tal turned his head to look at Layessa. “What, then why did you ask me about-”

“You’re letting the fire go, Tal,” Layessa interrupted.

Tal grumbled and fed more mana into the flickering ball of flame.

“To answer that question, like I said, I don’t know, but you only have to hear so many old codgers complain about Darisen’s warnings and decrees before you start to suspect something is up.”

“I do wish your elders had confided in me,” Nolsa said.

Layessa shrugged, her expression apologetic as she replied. “As far as I know, the only Erlkin those old roots dared to confide in were the healers like Meyla. I think Darisen has an idea that the tiny old farts are a problem.”

“And he left them alone?” Tal asked. “I can’t imagine he would.”

Layessa and Nolsa both laughed.

Tal grumbled, sunk his shoulders and concentrated on the fire. “Don’t know what’s so funny about that.”

“I’m sorry Tal,” Nolsa put a hand on his shoulder. “I wouldn’t be surprised if Darisen thought of it, but it’s not so easy to just root out some Gnomes who have decided to hide. Gnomes might be small, but they’re every bit the equals of us Erlkin. No one would stand for it.”

“I suspect there have been attempts though,” Layessa commented with a tiny finger on her lips. “I still remember a whole bunch of people moving around when Easil found you, Tal.”

“Really?” Tal asked, his gaze wandering for a moment before he jerked his eyes back to the fire. He looked over to where Easil was resting in his makeshift bedding. “Do you remember that, Easil?”

“Hmm?” Easil grunted, raising his head to look back. “When I found you? Oh those first days with you were an incredible blur. Hmmm.” He let his head drop back, but Tal could see him thinking about the question.

“Remember old Suzo?” Layessa prompted.

Easil nodded. “Oh yeah, I remember that cranky old gnome. And his wife Milly; she made tasty cookies. I guess there were a bunch of people moving around at that time. I was just trying to wrap my head around all the help I was getting.” Easil smiled as he looked at Tal. “As you can imagine, a baby Human was a pretty big burden for little me, not that I would have chosen differently. I’m still grateful for old Vialla, despite everything.”

“I haven’t heard that name for awhile,” Nolsa reminisced.

Tal nodded. Vialla had been his nurse until he was big enough for Easil to handle. But he didn’t really have any fond memories of her. “I guess Vialla was assigned by Darisen?” Tal wondered out loud. “I don’t remember ever liking her that much.”

“She was nothing but professional, and when I think about it, absolutely nothing but professional. Vialla never let any emotion show,” Easil said in agreement. “That makes more sense now.”

“I think the roast is done,” Layessa said, interrupting the conversation. “Lets have some food.”

The conversation was put on hold as the roast was divided up for food and the extra wrapped up for later. It was hardly the best meal Tal had eaten; rather, it was hard to enjoy the gamey meat at all. Whatever went into the winghound’s diet, along with the stress of its final moments, had added flavours that Tal could have done without. Some herbs and spices foraged along the way made it manageable at least.

But knowing they didn’t have anything else besides a bit of dried preserves Easil and Nolsa had grabbed during their sudden departure and then whatever other foods could be scavenged, Tal could live with the taste being off. It was too bad they didn’t know how to prepare the meat for rations, if they’d even had the time.

“So, the basic plan is to wander the upper limbs to search for Perkay, then sneak back into the Heart,” Layessa repeated as they finished up. “It’s too bad we can’t help all that much sneaking into that place.”

“What do you mean?” Tal asked.

“Did you see many Gnomes while you were there? And how about the usual Gnomish conveniences?” Layessa asked, her tone suggesting she already knew the answer.

Tal blinked. Some of the houses around the rings had Gnome paths, but there hadn’t been anything in his ‘room’, nor any Gnomish paths around the central tower. “I guess not. Was it always like that?”

“I can’t say, I don’t really know,” Layessa admitted. “But I do know that Gnomes that do go in there are carefully watched.”

“Yeah, the Wardens weren’t all that friendly when I visited with Ouran,” Easil agreed.

“Which makes forcing an entrance where they don’t expect a good idea,” Layessa said, pointing at Nolsa. “We just have to get word to the elder Gnomes and hopefully you can have some backup when you do so.”

Tal gulped. “That’s… is it really okay if we do that?”

“Are you having second thoughts now, Tal? It’s too late for that.” Layessa arched her eye at Tal as she spoke.

“I meah, yeah, but, I don’t want more people to get hurt.” Tal admitted, his voice going quiet.

“If it wasn’t you Tal, it would be another chosen child,” Layessa countered. “While people don’t change, the world around them is always in flux.”

Tal didn’t have an answer for that.

“Help would be welcome,” Nolsa stepped in. “Although whatever we do, we will have to be quick, Gnomes are highly adaptable, but don’t have the capacity for drawn out fights.”

“As much as I want to, I can’t argue with that,” Layessa admitted. Easil grunted his agreement from where he was resting.

As late as it was, the conversation died off after that.

But Tal found himself unable to sleep. Later, as Layessa let out a tiny whistle and Easil had started his own miniature log-sawing, Tal continued to stare at the twists of wood justabove him in the little wooden cave. It wasn’t the discomfort of only having a threadbare excuse for a blanket and a pokey misshapen pillow keeping him up. Tal hadn’t previously thought much about the repercussions of him running away. It had never occurred to him that more and more people would be in danger because he decided to run for it.

“Don’t be guilty, be grateful.”

Tal jumped, then looked over to where Nolsa was looking at him. “What?”

He could barely see her in the darkness, only the bare outline of her body under the blanket in the darkness visible to him.

Nolsa’s voice was soft as she spoke. “It speaks well of you that you would feel guilty that so many people might be in danger because of you, but is only natural to sacrifice for the next generation.”

Tal grumbled, he wanted to argue, but only with the point. He didn’t actually want to argue with Nolsa.

“I understand it isn’t the easiest thought. But keep that in your mind. Layessa was right in that if it wasn’t you, it would be someone else. If you want to do it right, then endeavor to remember those who have sacrificed for you, and allow yourself to be grateful to them.”

“Even if I barely know them?” Tal asked.

“Even if you barely know them.”

Tal let himself crack a little smile. “Thank you, Nolsa.”

“My pleasure, Tal.”

End Chapter