Keridwen of Khar Vell

The Old Aureate Wing

Imafenduwell Hall

 

A long time after Grannie got Lalauri out of the broom closet, Cecil—along with most of the other nulliwumps following alongside him—left Keridwen’s room in a huff and slammed her bedroom door shut behind him, causing one of the paintings hanging on her wall to fall to the floor.

Keridwen sat down on her bed, emotionally exhausted from the monstrous scolding she had just endured. She had never seen an angry nulliwump before. She hoped to never see that again.

With her legs shaking, and with tears welling up in her eyes, the little girl laid down fully on her bed and curled up on top of its sheets. The moonlight was so bright that night that it seemed to transform the room into a surreal dreamscape.

Eventually, after Keridwen was granted a long while to sulk on her own, a soft knock came to the door. When Keridwen didn’t answer, she heard a voice say, “Keridwen, are you awake?”

Not really wanting anymore scoldings, Keridwen simply didn’t reply, hoping that whoever it was would just go away. She was not that lucky.

Sure enough, the door opened up and Grannie’s head came poking through the opening. Upon seeing that Keridwen was, in fact, awake, Grannie came in and sat next to Keridwen on the bed.

“Are you here to yell at me?” Keridwen whispered, bracing herself for whatever answer came next.

“No, Little One.” Grannie answered. “From what I’ve heard, the nulliwumps already did that. I’d like to speak with you.”

“…I’m sorry.”

“First, I am not the one you should be apologizing to, Little One. And I know you know that. Second, what I want to talk to you about is why you saw the reaction that you did from Lalauri after I broke down the closet door.”

“It’s because she’s afraid of the dark, right? And small spaces?”

“Yes, she is afraid of both of those things, but what I mean to say is that I want you to know why she fears those things so much and what you actually did to her by locking her into that state of mind for so long. Why? Because in order to make sure this never happens again, I believe you need to understand the reasoning behind the instruction. Because mark my words, Keridwen, cooler heads may have prevailed today, but this can never happen again. Understand?”

On one hand, thinking of the barrage of criticism and rage the nulliwumps had given her and Thumper for their “prank” hardly seemed like “cooler heads” prevailing. On the other hand, clearly noticing the unspoken threat of consequence in Grannie’s words, Keridwen slowly and silently nodded her head.

“Good.” Then Grannie looked out at the window behind them and sighed loudly. “You see, Keridwen…the world we live in is a post-apocalyptic one. You wouldn’t know it by living solely on the continent of Tesardess—as you have for all of your short life—but if you were to visit any of the continents outside of the Northern Hemisphere, you’d see the devastation and likewise the scars that remain even centuries after the Season of Usurpers…I’m getting ahead of myself, though.” She said, clearly noticing the lost look on Keridwen’s face. “Long ago—thousands of years ago now—Enchantyon was invaded and occupied by the Fae. I’m talking about the High Faeries, the Faebeasts beneath them, and later on the even lesser, half-blood creations of the High Faeries: the Fae Kindred. All of them existed under the imperial rule of their matron, the Faemother.”

Keridwen sat up on the bed at the sound of all this. She had heard bits and pieces of the Fae ever since arriving in Aureate, but perhaps now she would get a full story on the matter.

Before she continued, Grannie let out a very shaky sigh—her body shivering at whatever she was thinking about.

“When they first exploded into this world,” she continued. “The Fae brought with them the end of The Mythical Age, and ushered in a new one—a time that would be declared as being, The Seelie Age. Although, there was nothing seelie about it for most of the world’s peoples. It was with a great amount of violence that had marked their invasion of Enchantyon that ending up precluding a greater war to come—a war that my granddaughter fought in. You see, Lalauri was one of the greatest warriors we had at the time that this all happened. And when we lost the war…when we lost the war, Lalauri was punished. She was punished horribly.”

Keridwen watched as Grannie’s demeanour changed; the elf woman’s voice cracked sharply, causing her to clasp her hand on her mouth for a moment. She slouched where she sat on the bed. Tears were welling up in her eyes, and although it was barely noticeable, Keridwen saw she was still visibly shaking at the thought of whatever memories were conjured up. Then, as quickly as all these signs of trauma came, Grannie took a deep breath in, and her signs of pain and sorrow just as quickly disappeared behind a wall of stoicism.

“Part of that punishment,” Grannie started again, her voice still mutinously uneasy. “Part of it was being locked away in a mass prison that the High Faeries had built called The Phlemestillon Pits. Simply put, the place was a playground for some very…sadistic…sick…evil minds. And Lalauri—along with every war criminal they could get their hands on, as well as many, many others—were the playthings of those sick individuals…because of how young you are, I’m going to spare you the details of what exactly done to them. What I want you to know, however, is that when you locked Lalauri in that broom closet, you sent her back to that place. You sent her right back, Keridwen. Right back to that…that…that terribly tiny and pitch black dark pit she was locked in for the better part of three thousand years.”

A renewed well of guilt bubbled up in the pit of Keridwen’s stomach upon hearing that last part. “Is…is she going to be ok?”

“Eventually. She’s doing better now. But what I think would help a lot is an apology from you. In fact, she actually asked me to bring you to her. If you’re ready now, we can go meet her.”

For a little while, Keridwen gave no answer. She knew she couldn’t put off facing Lalauri forever, though. Eventually, she would have to bite the bullet.

And so, she finally nodded to Grannie, and the two made their way back to the Jördlands Wing to meet with her guardian.

 

*

 

They found Lalauri sitting just outside of the front doors of the Jördlands Wing. Thankfully, it wasn’t nearly as cold as it was when Grannie arrived earlier that day.

Once Grannie had opened up the front doors, Keridwen’s heart stopped for a minute when she saw Lalauri looking straight at her as the door opened. For some reason, Keridwen hadn’t expected Lalauri to just be sitting there on the front steps, staring at her in the cold dark like that. Without even responding or greeting them, Lalauri turned her unreadable face away from them and went to staring off into the snowy distance as she no doubt had been doing already before their arrival.

Silently, Grannie gently nudged Keridwen and encouraged her to approach Lalauri. When she was outside, the doors closed behind her, and both the elf and the little girl were left alone with one another.

Keridwen listened as the arctic winds whistled past them, wondering how to break the uncomfortable silence.

“I’m sorry.” Keridwen finally blurted out. “I…I’m sorry, Lalauri…I didn’t mean…I wasn’t trying to hurt you. It was just a…I mean, I know we shouldn’t have—that I shouldn’t have. I won’t do it again, though. I promise…”

Lalauri didn’t respond. She just sat there, looking ahead. Then, with the slightest turn of her head towards Keridwen, she finally said, “Sit.”

Keridwen obeyed—she went so sit down on the icy stone steps, bundled up in her winter furs like Lalauri was beside her.

Lalauri sighed, then she turned to stare at Keridwen silently for a few moments with incredibly bloodshot eyes. After an impossibly long and uncomfortable moment, Lalauri finally said, “You and I must find a way to get along, Little One.” Surprisingly, Keridwen didn’t hear any anger in her voice, but rather exhaustion cracking in-between the words she spoke.

“I’m sorry…” Keridwen repeated, barely a whisper this time.

“Yes…I heard you. Why did you do it?”

“…It was my stuffed moose’s idea…”

Lalauri turned to look at her again, this time looking positively perplexed. “Sorry?” she asked.

Keridwen explained how she came across the talking toy, how it told her about how Lalauri had used magic, and how that upset her because Lalauri had been so insistent on her not using magic in the past. Then she explained how the toy had revealed that it came up with the plan after reading Lalauri’s diary.

“I showed Cecil the toy,” Keridwen continued. “And then he said it was a magical creation someone had made, and he tore it to shreds.”

“A magical creation? As in someone conjured it up and placed it in your bedroom?”

Keridwen nodded.

“Keri…the toy was lying to you.” Lalauri sighed. “I cannot use magic. At all.”

“What? Why not?”

“Because it’s all gone. When I was your age—which was a very long time ago now—I had some of the most stupendous magic. I was a very powerful sorceress of magnificent natural talent, and at one point, a very well practised witch. But then one day…well, let’s just say that it became very clear one day exactly how powerful I was. Too powerful, in fact.”

“Oh.” Keridwen wasn’t sure else what to say to that, other than, “What kind of mage are you—or were you?”

“I was…a terraformer.”

“A terraformer?”

“Yes. A powerful mage with natural near-mastery of the earth, nature, and transfiguration axioms of magic. We are…incredibly rare, so even if you didn’t grow up outside of Khar Vell, you probably wouldn’t have heard of them before. The only thing about being a terraformer like us is, unlike other sorcerers or wizards, our magic is very much finite. And once we commit a massive display of terraforming…that’s it. No more magic. Ever. Which of course means—among other reasons…that there was never really any need to lock me inside of that broom closet.”

“Oh…wait a minute…we? You mean us? You mean me?”

Lalauri nodded sadly. “I believe you are also a terraformer. Not just me either—Grannie and Cecil both have the same suspicion. While you may not have much control over it, you have a clear, natural ability for the axioms of magic that I just mentioned.”

“Is that why you don’t want me practising magic? Because of how dangerous it might be?”

“Because of how dangerous it is, Little One.” Lalauri corrected. “Even apart from whatever the cost of using magic ends up being for you in any instance, it can cause tremendous damage to those around you…but that’s enough of that for now. I don’t know if Grannie told you this already, but there are things I need to go over with you regarding your future here at Imafenduwell Hall.”

Keridwen listened as Lalauri went over many ground rules and expectations regarding how she was to go about living in Lalauri’s home. Things like listening to herself, Grannie, or any of the nulliwump adults when she’s told to do something. It was also made clear to her that there would be serious consequences for repeated disobedience going forwards like missing out on treats after dinner and something Lalauri called a “grounding”.

“That being said,” said Lalauri. “You are being grounded for what you did to me today. That means no hanging out with Thumper to go exploring after classes for a month—you’ll be coming straight back to your room afterwards every day. Also, until your grounding has ended…”

Then something caught Keridwen’s ear as she was trying to listen to Lalauri; a faint sort of howling behind the wind. Actually no. It was more like a shrieking sound.

“Lalauri,” said Keridwen, cutting Lalauri off. “Do you hear that? It sounds like someone’s screaming…”

“It’s probably just the wind—” Then Lalauri’s long elf ears perked up, as if she too just picked up whatever it was they were hearing.

Quickly rising to their feet, they both made their way back through the front doors, with Lalauri leading the way and Keridwen following close behind. Once they were in and Lalauri closed the door behind them and listened.

Now it was unmistakable. Down the hall, back towards the direction of Junction Point, someone was screaming. Several people were screaming. Amidst the sounds of panic, they heard the shattering of glass and other objects, a heavy series of stomping, and even the piercing sound of laser-fire.