Journal of Tharndor

My destiny

         I feel light as a bird, like I’m soaring, but I’m bound. The wind on my face is cold, but I’m warm. My senses are alive. I feel a soft tickling of warm breath on my ear, and I nuzzle into it. My nostrils are assaulted by a masculine musk. My body is like a violin that he strokes, causing it to vibrate to my woman’s core. He whispers to me, in a language I don’t understand, as he pressed my head to his shoulder. “Cormamin niuve tenna’ manka lle tula tyara harwar ie’ i’irma haeannon. Sii’kaima.” My heart knows the words are important, so it remembers them.
                                                           ***
         When I came to, I assumed I must have been dreaming, because I found myself in a small room on a cot. I felt dizzy as I sat up, but that soon cleared as I noticed my wrists were bruised. I flinched when the door squeaked open. Dottie stuck her head in and gasped, “Oh, Kennocha, you’re awake” as she rushed to me. She was followed in by several people carrying trays, except the last one, who wore a flowing white robe and gestured to the others to place the food one the table and leave.
         “I am sorry he shackled you, but you were trying to call upon the Lord and Lady to do him harm,” the lady in the white robe spoke softly but condemningly. I just stared at her, unable to put two words together coherently.
         Dottie jumped in to say, “Kenny, I told you, you must never call upon the Lord and Lady to do harm. Kaon killed the Du’Sith that were after you. It took awhile for Evelyn and I to convince him that you are not in league with them, but that they wish to use you as their pawn.” She poured something into a cup and gestured for me to drink it. It tasted somewhat like coffee, except wasn’t as bitter, and it did help me to focus.
         “Dottie, please introduce me to your friend?” I commanded.
         Dottie looked abashed and glanced at the other woman, before introducing her. “Kennocha, may I introduce you to my friend and mentor, Evelyn Ashton. She is high priestess to my coven and a member of the Cloister. She is trying to convince Kaon to take you to the Gerousia. His orders were to remove any treat to Tharndor that might involve the release of the Doidhean.”
         “Dottie, we must let Kennocha recover before we inundate her with all that,” Evelyn spoke with a calming voice, but I was still wary. Evelyn turned to Dottie, gesturing to the door, she advised, “Why don’t you go let the council know that Kennocha has awakened and we will be down in an hour. Kennocha and I will just get acquainted.”
         Dottie opened her mouth as to say something, then closed it and shook her head as she opened the door and left. I watched as the door clicked shut and stared at it. Once again, I was having trouble coming to terms with what all had happened.
         “I know you have been through a lot and will go through much more. Kennocha, your life has made you ready for this… Now, we have to get you ready for your travels. Hmm, let me see. First, you need to be able to understand elvish and obviously you don’t have time to learn it the normal way, so we will just have to work an enhanced learning spell. And you’ll need different clothes. I really am surprised that you did not suffer from exposure when Kaon flew you here. I have had my seamstress make you a coat of Karakadon leather lined with Humbata fur for your flight to Tharndor. You will meet with Shemaca to pick out the rest of your clothes. I will also teach you the proper etiquette for your meeting with the Gerousia and other elves. Now, eat and I will prepare the learning spell,” she pointed to the table and whorled around to the door. She opened the door and started out when she suddenly stop and looked at me over her shoulder, shaking her head I thought I heard her say to herself, “So young and unguarded, my Lady, you will have to watch over her closely or he will crush her spirit” then she was gone and I left to stare in her wake.
                                                           ***
         I had eaten a scone and drank some more of the drink that Dottie had fixed for me, when Evelyn returned twenty minutes later. Evelyn fixed a circle on the floor, then placed various stones and crystals around and had me stand in it. After calling upon the Lord and Lady, she had me pick up the crystals in a clockwise fashion from inside the circle. She handed me a leather pouch and had me place them in it. “Kennocha, when you need to learn something fast, take this pouch and hold it in your dominate hand and say ‘May you open my mind to all that needs to been learned, my Lady of the earth.’ You will be able to remember and learn faster through that day. But once you have slept, you will have to renew the spell.”
         “Evelyn, now that you have done the spell and I am ready to learn, tell me why the elves are after me. I now know I am half elf, but that alone can not be the cause of all this bloodshed, can it?”
         “ You are half elf but you are also half witch. Your mother, Summer, was one of my students who was entrusted by the Elders to watch over the gateways. She was to relay to the elders any sightings of ones coming or going through the gate of Alba or Scotland, as you know it. She disappeared for a while, which now I know was when you were born. When she came back to us, she was changed. She was stronger than when she left and unreadable to any of the Elders. We tried to get her to tell us what had occurred, but she said she was sworn to secrecy. However, she did let me know that there were ones in Tharndor who were trying to open the gate to Doidhean. Doidhean holds the evil creatures that tried to take over Tharndor. That time was called the Avulsion, because it torn apart the Elven society. Kaon has told us that the Du’sith are indeed trying to find the key to open the gate of Doidhean, and they seem to think it lays here in the human realm. The only problem is, it is not an inanimate object. Here in lies the problem, none of us knows for sure what the key is,” she finished with a shrug of her shoulders. Evelyn had been moving about the room the whole time she talked, but when she said no one knew for sure what the key was, she looked directly at me. This unnerved me, and I dreaded the answer, but I could not leave well enough alone. As they say ‘curiosity kills the cat’ and this kitten had the feeling death was waiting around the corner.
         “Evelyn, if no one knows what the key is, then why do these Du’sith think they can find it on Earth?” I queried with great trepidation.
         “The Yaara who placed the barriers between your world and mine, also, imprisoned those who wished to lorded over you humans. They placed them in Doidhean. However, one of the Yaara was not opposed to what the evil ones had tried to do, but new the futility of continuing at the time. So, he wrote of how the gate was sealed and let his followers know that in 150 years, they were to look for the key. And that brings me here,” the elf from Dottie’s was leaning against the doorjamb, he sapphire eyes boring into me.
         Feeling like a bug under a microscope, I broke his gaze and glanced at Evelyn who was studying the elf. When she looked at me, I thought I saw amusement in her eyes that she quickly masked. “May I present Ruat Te’Himear Kaon Koehoth Baelyn of the house Cyreddare, he is the Gerousia’s representative that Dottie spoke of earlier,” at this Evelyn turned to Kaon and said in all formality, “Te’Himear, may I present Kennocha Koisidura Teranika McCallum, an earth healer and daughter of my fellow sister, Summer Eve McCallum.”
         I noted he seem to be working over in his mind Evelyn’s presentation of me before he responded to her as if I were not in the room, “So, she is a witch, also. Well, you must commend her teacher; she repelled the black magic of a highly trained Du’sith.” Then he glanced at me, “ I have come to take you the meeting that your fellow witches demand. I have agreed to listen to their arguments on your behalf. Shall we go,” he gestured for me and then Evelyn to precede him into the corridor.