An Epilogue with Bishop Garshom de Welk

The warding spell that I placed on the flying carpet woke me up. Long accustomed to waking and dressing quickly, I was only a few minutes behind Cat and Fuzzy as they escaped Tammerhof. I shuddered at what I was about to do since I was not as young as I used to be. I buckled on my sword belt and unsheathed the broadsword my late father gifted me four decades ago. I cast the difficult essence-of-flight spell on the sword, balanced on it, stepped off it, opened the french doors to my office balcony, stepped back on the sword, and started my pursuit.

I knew where Cat and Fuzzy were going. It would be easy to find them. They journeyed down the Green River in one of the river barges that brought the Zimlakan cavalry force to the Gan region. The Black Cat Hunters had been hired by the Sahkuhl of Zimlakuliku to take care of a cockatrice infestation in one of his more southern coastal towns.

Prince Willam and Duke Sven traveled with them because once they arrived in Shupushum, the capital of Zimlakuliku, they would attend the marriage of Blue Fox and Suhkeena Aisha as Nordweg’s official representatives.

I found the bank-side camp of the barge’s crew and passengers with ease. All I had to do was follow the river. “Ware the camp!” I amplified my voice to announce my arrival. I didn’t want to be peppered with arrows.

Other than Fuzzy, the boat crew and the elven adventurers were still startled by my arrival.

“I’m not going back,” Cat stated, glowering at me from his camp stool by the campfire.

“If I intended to take you back to Tammerhof, you and everyone else would be out cold right now,” I pointed out for Cat’s benefit. He should have known this already. “Where’s Fuzzy?” She was next to Cat when I hopped off my sword.

“Behind you.”

I turned around to find Fuzzy in a hunting crouch inches from my heels. “How did you escape my threat perception spell?”

Fuzzy sat up, “it only works on threats. If you don’t believe I’m a threat to you, the spell won’t work.”

“Merciful Matadee,” I rolled my eyes and shook my head. “I've been researching spirit beasts. When I realized you were rejoining the Black Cat Hunters, I ran after you because I don't want to wait a year and a half to ask you some questions." I picked up my sword and sheathed it. "Can we chat?"

* Certainly, Your Emminence. *

“Don’t you go all formal on me, you flea-infected feline,” I scowled at her. “You’ve always called me Garshom when you weren't calling me 'old priest.' Why change now? It's not like we're in public? Shall we stroll along the river and talk?” I started to walk along the bank after casting night vision on myself despite the fatigue of casting the flight spell on my sword.

I wanted to be out of earshot before talking. I was completely honest that I wanted to ask some questions and didn’t want to wait. I had hoped that Prince Andray would stay in Tammerhof with his birth family, mostly for the sake of his family and especially his younger sister. His own trials in life had instilled in him a level of empathy that most royals never obtain. He was a kind soul as a result. He would be a good influence on Aricia, who looked to me like a lost soul in need of a friend.

The other reason was that it would put Aricia in the presence of Fuzzy. Fuzzy would be a good influence on Aricia. I was sure of that. She had a knack for defusing anger, lifting depression, and building confidence – just like Princess Sophie had once done for her little brother Andray after the loss of their mother.

During my short time in Herman’s Close, which was more like a pastoral vacation for me than an exile, my friend and colleague, Bishop Joff de Vurl, answered all my letters and sent me both the news and the research materials I requested. Given all the digging I did on spirit beasts, with Joff’s help, I was probably now the foremost authority on the phenomenon.

I knew now that the driving animus inside every spirit beast was a displaced human soul doing penance for the sin of not being able to let go of this life for whatever reason. For most spirit beasts, their souls would not leave because of unfinished business or because of attachment to loved ones.

“How old were you when we first met, Fuzzy?”

* About a year and a half. I had left my mother and my two brothers the season before to head my own, which is what cougars do. *

“When did you start remembering things that no cougar could have known?”

* It was when the daffodils bloomed during my first spring. I was chasing butterflies with my brothers while my mother watched. I had landed in a patch of blooming daffodils and as I smelled their scent, what ran through my brain was:

I wandered lonely as a cloud

That floats on high o'er vales and hills,

When all at once I saw a crowd,

A host, of golden daffodils;

Beside the lake, beneath the trees,

Fluttering and dancing in the breeze.

It was absurd, really. Not only did poetry flood into my head but so did the names of all the flowers and trees, the names of stars and constellations, recipes for human food, knowledge of human musical instruments, and all sorts of other useless human knowledge. *

“Tell me, Fuzzy, do you have a favorite poem?”

* Yes. *

This was followed by a long silence.

I sighed. Fuzzy can be such a tease. “What is your favorite poem?”

* Ah, love, let us be true

To one another! for the world, which seems

To lie before us like a land of dreams,

So various, so beautiful, so new,

Hath really neither joy, nor love, nor light,

Nor certitude, nor peace, nor help for pain;

And we are here as on a darkling plain

Swept with confused alarms of struggle and flight,

Where ignorant armies clash by night. *

“That has to be one of the saddest love poems ever written,” I sighed because it had also been Sophie’s favorite. “Do you resent being tied to Andray? Do you ever wish for a life of your own?”

* From the moment I first saw Andray in his wheelchair, I was drawn to him. When I am with him, I feel that all is right with the world. When he is away from me, I feel restless and unable to be at peace. If a life of my own means being away from Andray, then I do not want it. I do not resent Andray. This is how the gods made me, to be with this boy, no, with this young man. *

“Aren't you lonely? I mean, for your own kind?" This was one of my biggest worries for Fuzzy.

* I find other cougars are just stupid beasts. I do not miss them. If I am in the company of other sapient beings, I am not lonely. Why do you ask, Garshom? *

“I confess, I do worry about you. You may be the only living spirit beast in the world right now. To be the only one of your kind is to be alone. When you are finished with adventuring and you and Andray come home to Tammerhof, what are your plans? Is there anything you want to do, other than to follow Andray? Living in the city will be different from adventuring or from living in Elvenhome."

* Well,* Fuzzy sounded a bit embarrassed, * I have such a good knowledge of the law, I was thinking that I might attend the Inns of Law to become a lawyer. *

The End For Now