Mala Mooncrow

[MitzaVolchenko]

An oddly bright ripple ran through the soft greyness of the overworld confusing the soul. The web that held it was weakening exponentially, and the soul knew it.
The soul studied the ripple as it echoed about and at the last moment tried to struggle out of its path.
With no time in the overworld, the soul did not know how long passed between the passing of the event and the return of calm. There was still no pain, but the web was stronger now. Something had happened.
With an effort the soul turned its focus back to the web and followed its strands to its old host. All was quiet...and with a relieved weariness, the soul returned to wait on the web to thin again, for it would. The soul knew that freedom would come with patience.

[MitzaVolchenko]

Li gasped and Raella set up a wail when they entered the sanctum. Mala who for uncountable days ahd knelt between the altars, was gone!

Li made a grab for her daughter's hand and missed. Raella charged through the door to the living quarters crying her aunt's name.

In the empty living room they all stopped to listen. The twins struggled in Li's arms and she absently set them down summoning Selar to watch them as she drew her seldom used sword and crept to the open bedroom door.

"Raella, stay with Gierdo and Ziya," she whispered fiercely at her daughter, who seeing the blade drawn acquiesced.

Sword in one hand, Li made a few passes with her left hand and moved to the open door. The energy of the spell danced across her fingers as she peered around the door and collapsed against the doorframe sobbing with relief.

"Come children. Mala is in bed," the relief in her voice brought the children using each other for support to the door.

"Mala?" Li called to her sister, and when there was no response her shortlived joy evaporated. Mala lay propped in the bed with an odd smile on her face, but she was no more there than she had been in the sanctum.

"But Mommy, she moved!" Raella pointed out peering at her aunt. "She must have gotten in here somehow."

Li smiled reassuringly at her daughter, "Of course this is a good sign. We shall simply cast the restoration on her, and I am sure she will return to us soon."

Li drew the last of her restoration scrolls from her pouch and read it softly over her sister. The magic could only do so much. It coud not restore the lost weight, nor it seemed call Mala home.

Raella helped the twins to climb onto the bed and stretched out on her stomach between them, "Your Mommy is getting better. See, she is in bed now. And you knows when we are sick we go to bed to get wells."

Closing her eyes, Li thought, yes we go to bed to get well. But I do not think Mala put herself here. Still the smile...

For several hours they sat with the prone figure until, in the coming dusk they made their way toward home.

[MitzaVolchenko]

Images intruded on the soul's peace...a tree near a mystic circle. The soul turned inward examining the tree and the circle not caring much either way...the web had begun to collapse again, but the images would pass the time.

There was something about that tree. It seemed ordinary enough, but it brought with it images of dragon's fire and laughter. What an odd notion, laughter with dragon's fire...

Disturbed by its own intense scrutiny of something so ephemeral as a false image, the soul turned its attention again to the soft grey mists of the overworld to wait.

[MitzaVolchenko]

Odd shadows played across the great scaled body as it slipped out of the temple and softly took wing into the night. Master Highlind watched Lung Tsai go and sent a part of himself with the Great Wyrm. Tonight's flight was a matter of urgency to both of them, and though he could no longer fly with his old friend in body, Master Highlind sent what he could of spirit and soul in the form of unworded prayers...

[MitzaVolchenko]

Leathery wings cut through the ether as the Great Wyrm made the transition into the overworld. Enveloped in the soft grey mists, Lung Tsai sent his soul out before him, moving as only oneof his kind can as both soul and body. Like strange twins of light and darkness his dual self searched for a specific soul.

For what seemed an eternity or perhaps just a moment the light chased by its shadow slipped through the mists studying each soul he found. At last he looked below him to see his goal. Entangled in a delicate web of strands of red and white, lay the soul he sought.

Light and shadow merged as Lung Tsai settled his great bulk spiralling about the soul and sheltering it in his great wings. Tired from the effort of crossing the Veil, he tucked his head under his wings and rested letting his breath warm the soul which shivered at his proximity.

[MitzaVolchenko]

Alone in the darkness of an empty home, Mala opened her eyes and listened. No sound broke the silence, no light shattered the darkness.
Images floated in her mind without meaning. The images jumbled about her and in the darkness they seemed to take on a life of their own.
Hesitantly she tried to rise from the unfamiliar bed and nearly fell as atrophied muscles refused to support her weight. Confused and alone, she lay back too tired to try to rise again.
Sleep crept up on her like a thief in the night, and with resignation, she slid her mind away and into the dreams...the dragon, the tree, and a pair of sad pale eyes that saw through her...

[MitzaVolchenko]

The roar of the ocean and of falling water nearby passed into her consciousness. The scent of grass and fresh flowers blooming invaded her senses. Light seared through her eyelids only to be shaded.
Opening her eyes slowly, Mala looked into the swirling depths of eyes she had thought never to see again.

"Master Lung Tsai, is it you?" she spoke hesitantly in voice rusty from disuse.

"Yes, Daughter of the Valley. It is I, but I cannot long remain here and yet send my spirit back to the place that it belongs," the dragon's form shimmered diaphanous in the bright light.

Mala frowned unable to rise, "I am confused."

"Yes, Mala. That confusion will last for many moons and perhaps for all time. Remember the stars that I read to you, little one. Remember them and remember your Self. I have seen to your wakening, but you must see to the rest," with a sigh like the wind across the desert, Lung Tsai let go his grip on the mortal's world and flew with the speed of a prayer back across the overworld.

Alone in the Temple awaiting the return of his friend, Master Highlind knelt outwardly serene and inwardly in turmoil. When at last the great wings bore the Great Wyrm to the door, he turned his eyes to meet those of Lung Tsai, and knowing the truth let go the mortal coil to join those gone before.

[MitzaVolchenko]

As a child knowing nothing of the world, Mala rose and gasped at the beauty of the cliffs and all she could see from their heights. Below and beyond, she could see the sea and smelling it recalled a bright day with a laughing giant of a man.

Turning toward the land, she saw before her another laughing giant of a man, and shook her head to clear away the stab of recognition and pain. Before her swam the image of a tree and a mystic circle, and on unsteady feet she set out to find it.

All around her memories stirred, but with the ferocity of a wounded beast she thrust them away from her. Pain coursed down nerves too long unused. The roar of blood in her ears and the burning of a sign on her heart awakened emotions she could not contain. With a feral scream echoed by a trio of falcons high above her, she set off to outrun the pain, outrun the sign, outrun the past.

[MitzaVolchenko]

The sea was bracingly cold,and it brought her mind rushing back into focus. Shaking more with shock than cold, she climbed the boarding net and lay gasping on the deck. Another day overlayed this one in her mind's eye and with resignation she lay back and let the vision occupy her.

The albatross circling overhead let out its harsh laughter as Mala lay on her back in the sun soaking up the sun after her swim. Above her in the rigging a sailor swung with ease from a spar to a ratline and down to the deck with a grace even those funny small monkeys some men kept for pets would envy.

A shadow crossed the sun over her and in an instant she was swept up into her father's arms laughing and shaking her soaked hair on him. "Father, why thank you for saving me from the sun, it will quite ruin my complexion!" she giggled in a voice mocking the delicate tones of the 'proper' girls in the village.

Marrick roared with laughter and swung his daughter around in circles making her laugh harder, "You are perfect as you are, scamp!"

"You think all of your creations are perfect, Father!" she retorted. "And need I remind you of that disasterous rocking chair you made for Mother?"

"Why you impertinent thing you!" he laughed as he carried her to the side and tossed her into the sea roaring with laughter as his little girl tucked and then straightened into a graceful dive and came up still laughing a few feet off.

"Be careful, Father. I may just turn into dolphin, and how would you ever explain that to Mother?" Mala replied as she slipped up the boarding net and onto the deck again.

"Your Mother would simply say that you had earned it and remind me to save the best of my catch for you. Now get below and change. We are weighing anchor in half a candlemark," Marrick watched with pride as his daughter ducked below deck and in just a few moments returned in sailor's canvas shirt and breeches and took her place with the others working to ready the ship.

[MitzaVolchenko]

Salt spray brought her back to awareness and for a moment she heard her father admonishing her to coil a line tighter.
Groggy with sleep and grief, she propped herself up on the gunwhale and looked about. Her robes were soaked with rain and seawater. Her head throbbed with an intensity she had not felt in years. Not even Jotham's rages brought this kind of pain.
Sadly she surveyed the deck of the little ship and longed for simpler days. The days of carefree fishing and tale telling...even the days of dragon hunting and procuring this and that for each new experiment in the forge.
Too tired, she thought. I am too tired for this fight any longer. I have never been stronger, but I am too weary to apply myself to the war.
Hells, she thought with a grimace, I invited Mysaides to dinner. What in the nine hells was I thinking? Atleast the twins are safe with Li and Elith. I should move Miria from the house before I let him in.
Aching and sad, Mala rose stiffly and made her way below deck. She knew she still had a few changes of clothes in the bedroom chests. Granted they were all frivolous dresses, but at least they would do until her leathers dried.
She stopped in shock at the bedroom door and held her breath. The stray lock of dark hair brought her back to her senses and she crept to the chests, quietly withdrawind the first article of clothing she could reach and backing softly out the door.
Changing swiftly inthe forge room she noted with dismay that it was her old leathers that had been left long forgotten in the chest. Better that than getting sick from being cold and wet, she thought tugging the sleeves into place and twisting the pin to hold everything in place.
"Sleep well, little brother," she whispered as she slipped out the door and headed north.

[MitzaVolchenko]

With a sigh, she shuffled the piles of reports into the appropriate stacks and kicked back from the desk with a smile. Surprisingly, everything was in order.
The Warders were running well without her and the reports were favorable. The desert was quiet, the children were safe, and all was as it should be.
With a sigh she gazed at the letter still laying on the desk. Almost everything was as it should be. Perhaps it was for the best.
A quick whistle brought Verrin to her. The huge falcon balanced lightly on her wrist and she tied the message tube to the bird's leg before tossing her airborne and watching her swoop out the door.
If it bore fruit, that message would be her last duty to her people.
The thought of never playing many roles at once again brought a sad smile to her face. It offered such freedom but also brought worries. A harsh shake of her head broguth ehr bakc into focus. The time had come for others to bear those burdens. Her Warders might be as children to her sometimes, but they had to do the job for themselves.

[MitzaVolchenko]

The game pieces stood as tiny monuments on the stark sand table. The flickering torchlight cast deep shadows on the rows of infantry and the pieces representing commanders winked with their crystalline brilliance like little beacons to rally their troops.
Mala considered the sand table a moment and shifted a few markers smiling as she did so. In a small box by the table lay several pieces already removed from the game and two uncarved grey stones that had yet to enter play.
Memories of another sand table and her opponent there filtered into her mind and she sat back folding her legs under her and slipping quietly into meditation.

***
A breathy chuckle resonated from behind her as she moved a group of light horse archers in the wake of a scout, "Are you sure they are your best choice?"

Without looking Mala replied glibly, "Absolutely. If the scout is wrong, the light horse has the best chance to escape with few losses. If the scout is right, they will be able to trim the incoming infantry significantly as well as provide fast updates. Additionally, if the bribe I have sent to the neutral parties is accepted, the light horse will be joined by militia levies at the lowland pass and have an easy time of it."

A slender claw delicately reached over her and shifted a few markers for the 'enemy' troops, "You have no qualms about bribery?"

Frowning slightly, she considered her words before speaking, "I would prefer to not have to bribe anyone, but what is more in maintaining order and achieving the objective? The bribe is a calculated risk and one that decreases casualties and brings the conflict to a close faster."

"Indeed that is so, and you have grasped something that few understand. Morality is not to be found in adherence for appearance's sake. It is likewise in the use of spies. Always remember that it is what purpose and ends that you put your energies and resources to that matters," Lung Tsai replied as he snaked his great head about to study the table again.

Mala nodded thoughtfully and considered the nature of order and of morality. Morality she decided was simply a way of explaining deeper truths. Expediency, information, and decisiveness were to be preferred over ignorance and paralysis brought on by dithering over what another would find moral, just, or right. Smiling and at peace, she watched as Lung Tsai rearranged the pieces on the table for a different scenario.

***

Smiling as she came out of her trance, Mala studied the table again. Gently she lifted the two grey stones from the box and cradled them in her palm.

"Too soon, this will belong to you," she whispered before replacing them in the box and rising.

[MitzaVolchenko]

Into each chest, she carefully added racks of potions. There were full sets of anything anyone could ever want and carefully sealed bags of gold as well. The piles were identical and carefully arranged. Smiling, Mala added a tiny carved warhorse to one chest and a tiny carved dragon to the other.

The heavy books she laid on top of the piles, each with its note in the tucked safely inside the cover.

Stretching to loosen joints that really felt the change of seasons, Mala ran through the checklist for each chest. Too many broken bones and deep scars, she thought to herself. Ore is right, we are definitely old warhorses. And what really have we done?

The two chests stood open in silent answer.

[MitzaVolchenko]

Silently she shouldered her pack and looked down at the three sleeping children with a battery of emotions bringing a smile and tears to her eyes. She knew in that moment what her parents must have felt to see their children sleeping in a row in the loft, and she knew the pride and promise they must have seen.
A silent look to her sister and a shared nod and Mala knew that the decision was the right one. Gierdo and Ziya were old enough now to know who she was, and her presence with them was more threat than nurture. When the time came and they sought her, they would understand. The chests standing against the wall would help explain further. Li would teach them, and her few remaining friends would be sure to guard them when they began their journeys on the island. Until then, they would be well.
Soft steps led her out of her home. She paused to make obeisance to the altars in the sanctum and then slipped out into the desert night moving swiftly for the mountains. With each step she felt the past fall away and the future dim until only the present remained. Peace settled in her mind, and long before she reached her hermitage the outside world ceased to rule her.

[MitzaVolchenko]

Through the rain the sound of someone approaching in stealth reached her ears. Not moving, Mala listened to the nuances of their movements and smiled.

"Hello children. Gierdo, your armor is not padded properly and Ziya, you must tuck your amulet in if you are trying to move in stealth."

The startled pair froze and stood up from behind the rocks they had crouched behind. "How did you know we were here, mother?" they chorused together.

With a smile, Mala kipped up and turned to look with pride at her offspring, "I heard the change in the great cats' calls and then your steps as you crossed the stream below.

"What brings you out to see me in such weather? You did not duck out on your aunt did you?"

The twins looked at each other and then at their mother's solemn demeanor and slumped shuffling their feet in embarrassment.

"We left a note, mother," Ziya offered in a small voice.

"And I told Selar and Arcala where we were going..." added Gierdo with a slightly defensive note.

Mala looked down at them sternly and held a gloved hand out for Selar who appeared to land there, "You should not do such things, dearlings."

The twins blinked at Selar and bowed their heads, "We're sorry. We missed you," they said in unison again.

"As long as you are here, we might as well move into the cave and get dry and have some dinner. You may go home in the morning," the smile lighting her eyes denied her stern posture as Mala led her children over to her fire and tossed them cushions to sit on.

"Now, tell me what you have been doing, dear ones. I have missed you as well..."