Our journey to Arimens took us to flatter and warmer places where villages were more common and and thankfully did not freeze at night as it was barely Midsun by the time we left the peaks of perpetual winter. Several days down from the peaks we were very happy to see a village so we could spend our threnits on two rooms, warm baths, warm beds, and hot food. The innkeeper asked us of our journey to Arimens “The only path from the east into our village is over the peaks of perpetual winter, did the war of greed and power between Junumianis and Moringia drive you over those peaks to this town?” Realizing we were still within Harinia we explained to him that we did not flee the war as we were from the same kingdom as him and his village. He apologized for making such assumptions, for he had never heard people with accents such as ours, and then asked “If war is not what brings you through this village, why have you taken the trek through the peaks where it is always Icegrowth?” I told him that I planned to study magicks in Arimens and Ynguinian told him of his oath to escort me safely to the Moringian city. “Arimens is a good city, I hear, for it has resisted the call of the war that is of power and greed. However, I have heard from some of the peddlers that have come to the mountains that marks of war have started to spread along the road that leads to Arimens. You should be wary and take the main paths for I have heard that on all roads there are bandits, disease, liars, and desperate men (among other things).” We thanked the innkeeper for his advice and continued along the road the next morning.

  It was fortunate that we were not yet to the large trade road that led directly to Arimens, for it (and the many roads that followed alongside) was full of perils. Only the desperate, poor, foolish, and locals take the road through the peaks of perpetual winter and for this reason it remains to this day a small path tread by few and not a major route for trade. For Ynguinian and myself it meant that we did not yet see what greed and the desire for power brought upon the land. Rather our journey took us by clear and cold mountain streams, over knolls of wildgrass, and to small villages who had yet to be affected by the festering conflict. Before reaching the larger trade road Ynguinian and I camped by a river in stamped wildgrass and conversed as we often do when he asked me “Nayinian, do you think I would make a good warrior?” I thought for a bit, for he was strong and handsome and I could not stomach the thought of him fighting and taking lives, for I had done one of these things and I would not wish for him to do the same. I also considered his commitment to his oath and the companionship he had provided to me. “I think you would make a good warrior” I said  “but I think you would make a better companion in Arimens.” He did not continue the conversations and he was contemplative and quiet for nearly a week. It was only after we had reached the main road and faced our first danger did he fully consider what I had told him.

  “Nearly a week after our conversation on the knoll of wildgrass we finally arrived at the crossroad where the large trade road to Arimens begins. Ynguinian and I, being from small villages in the mountains, did not have the experience to anticipate the shock one gets when they travel in a foreign land. At the crossroads was a town with a name, Dew’s Flat, which was wondrous to us for we had never been to a settlement that held a name. The streets were cobbled, which we also found wondrous for we had never seen cobbled streets, let alone more than one street, and along these streets were stalls of peddlers and merchants that traveled with caravans selling their wares. These too were wondrous to us, for our villages did not have stalls. We barely had the threnits to spare for food and board. It was then I began to worry that I would not be able to study once we had reached Arimens, as I did have many threnits but if food was expensive then education must cost a fortune. I did not speak my worry to Ynguinian, for fear he might wish to no longer be my companion. This was a stupid fear to have, as the boy had sworn an an oath. But, I was little more than a girl and did not understand the power that deities, saints, and oaths wielded yet.

  However, it was because of this fear that I did seek to learn a spell. I believed that if I could show ambition to study that any mage in Arimens would take a child born under the double moon. We spent three nights in Dew’s Flat, so during those nights I wandered the streets of half-closed stalls and liars to find a single scroll or word of power. On the first night I prayed to Borrinean, as children who seek spells do, but I did not find anything. On the second night I offered Kalitian the words of Virtue I had received at home and from Ynguinian for hope that I might learn anything. I did not learn anything that night. However, when I slept I had a dream of rain and floods and did hear a voice that sounded like the rustling of old vellum and smelled like the finest inks. Kalitian sang to me: “Child of the double moon, brought into this world by the chilled mountain stream, heed this: If magic is what you seek, you will find it at the end of a winding and muddy trail through the tall and thick wildgrass towards a creek. Avoid the main road, for you will never find the knowledge you seek there. A price has been paid: on this path a widow has offered many words of Knowledge for my aid, and you have offered valuable words of Virtue for the same.”

  I woke up quickly and forced poor Ynguinian to leave very early in the morning, since I knew he would not break his oath. The moons had barely set and the town of liars had not yet woken from its drunken stupor when we strayed from the main trade road and instead walked a smaller path that became muddy and led into the tall and thick wildgrass. Ynguinian did not complain; he kept the oaths he took both in action and in disposition, but I could tell the humidity and the mud displeased him greatly. I also knew he was worried, for he kept saying “The innkeeper from that first village told us to stay on the main road, for there are many perils these days and the main roads are safer.” I rebutted him, “Kalitian told me there was no knowledge on that road, and that we must take this road because there is knowledge to be had here.” In his humor he rebutted me “that is true, for I now I know I hate the feeling of mud under my feet.” We laughed to such a volume and such a length that as we walked over the mud the joke nearly killed us. 

  For all of this laughing I had to stop to catch myself, and it was then that several men jumped out from the brush onto the muddy path to face us. They wore the tunics of traitors, scoundrels, and cowards and they brandished knives and swords at us and threatened us “Your coins or your life!” I felt a deep fear, deeper than I had with any wild animal for I was a child from a mountain village and I knew what wild animals could do, and unlike the man holding a sword towards my throat animals have forgotten what death and killing is. Men, however, know these things too well. I held tightly to my coin purse, for I did not want to lose the threnits that I was to pay to learn magicks. Ynguinian, however, was more level-headed and pulled the coin purse off of my person and spoke to them. “I will give you this coin purse on one condition, and that you must swear to Ghalstorin that Nayinian and I will travel this road unbothered by you and your men, lest you face his fury.” The robbers laughed at Ynguinian’s bargaining, but agreed to it because it amused them. 

  I was so furious with Ynguinian that I hit him with my staff in and yelled so fiercely and so low that my throat burned and I covered his face with spittle. “How dare you make me laugh so intensely as to draw bandits to us! How dare you give away the money to pay for my tutelage! Those were not your threnits to give you oafish knave!” Ynguinian, being a man of Virtue did not strike me back in anger, instead he calmed me with his words. “Nayinian, I gave them the threnits because I did not want you to die and I swore an oath to Ghalstorin that I was to make sure you reached Arimens safely. I am truly sorry, but there was nothing to be done there. Instead, let me swear to you another oath: I will stay with you in Arimens until you can afford the fee for tutelage. I will give you every last threnit, korint, and hilant beyond what I need for myself, even if it means my hands must be bloodied and my back broken. For now, I am happy that we are both alive. I am also grateful the robbers forgot that more than one person in a group can carry a coin purse.” Ynguinian flaunted his coin purse in front of my face, only to set it within my palms instead of back on his belt. I apologized for striking him, for he spoke his oath beautifully and with that I realized he had carefully considered the offer of companionship I had spoken to him days before. Ynguinian and I continued down the muddy path in the tall and thick wildgrass, arriving at the creek Kalitian had spoken of a couple of hours after the sun had begun to step down on its path.

  It was at the creek that we saw the stains of war upon the land. The water was covered with refuse and on the surface of the water clung, like a parasite, the unnatural colors of oils used in the making of armor and weapons. Parts of the creek were so dark that I had to blink to remind myself that it was the middle of the day and the sun was still on its path above the horizon. Next to the creek there was a small house with no door built of smooth river stones and woven wildgrass with fishing poles, nets, and spears leaning against it. This was clearly the widow’s home that Kalitian had told me of, so I approached the open door and saw the old widow laying on the floor. I saw that the widow was ill, for she was pale, shivering, covered in sweat and her clothes smelled of vomit. Kalitian had brought me to heal the woman who had given her words of Knowledge. 

  I tried to converse with the widow, but she was too sick to respond. I spoke of the situation to Ynguinian: “Kalitian has brought me to this polluted creek to help this widow, for she has offered words of the third saint’s patron. If I am to learn magicks from this, we must stay for several days and give her the water from our waterskins while I tend to the widow’s health.” It was at this point I did lie to the man, for I asked him to forage the roots I would need, as the heat had exhausted me. However, in truth it was that I feared touching water hemlock and bringing Decay to myself once more. Ynguinian did not want to stay,  fearing for our safety, but he kept his oath and stayed with me and helped me to nurse the widow back to health, unawares of the offense that bid my leave of my village. 

  It was three days that we slept next to the house with no door built of smooth river stones and woven wildgrass, and it was three days that I did nurse the widow back to health. I was as not familiar with the roots and herbs that grew next to creeks below the mountains, but I was of good fortune that Ynguinian agreed to help forage the roots and herbs I did know of, as I feared I might touch water hemlock. On the third day that we cared for the widow she had the energy to walk and speak, who did thank us for our aid, and told us that we must take her to Dew’s Flat for the creek was too polluted to live by and she was too old to walk far by herself. I told that widow that we would do such. However, being young and hasty I did take time to ask her of Kalitian’s payment. “Widow, we sought out your home next to the polluted creek where oils cling to the surface of the water, for Kalitian had promised to me magicks. Do you have  magicks to teach me?’ The widow responded “No, I have paid the price of words of Knowledge to the third saint, and that is all I have. I know much of fish, smooth river stones, and the weavings of wildgrass, but I know nothing of spells nor did my husband before the thirteenth had her way with him. Instead I will teach what I know of weaving the wildgrass once I am safely to Dew’s Flat.”

  So we took the widow through the winding and muddy path in the tall and thick wildgrass back to Dew’s Flat, where she taught us to weave baskets of wildgrass tight enough to hold water and fish. It was during my weaving of the wildgrass that a lizard climbed to my shoulder. It was no ordinary lizard, for it had three eyes and six legs, and three tails and each leg had three toes, for it was a messenger of Kalitian that only shows to those the saint has spoken to. The lizard, unlike the common lizards who were not blessed by Kalitian, still had its full knowledge of language and magic and did whisper to my ear. “Kalitian is pleased that you have answered her call, but displeased that you are impatient and ambitious, for learning takes time and spells of magick are not knowledge. Heed her displeasure, for she has requested I give the spell known by some of my visage, a spell for which you cannot be noticed. Practice this spell. Do not treat it with the same irreverence you treated yew, nightshade, and water hemlock. Spells are many things, and this one shall be both a gift and a lesson to you, for Kalitian bids that this spell will teach you the patience to learn you lacked with the widow, thus it will not give you the renown you seek.”

Author's note: Updates every Tuesday and Friday! Thanks for reading!