Spirit Speaker

I woke in my room.

There was no golden-eyed goddess, there was no glowing spirit. I was alone. 

I lay back on my bed, hands behind my head. 

A knock on the door pulled me from my thoughts. 

"Lukas?" Anna had returned from her sightseeing. "May I come in?"

I double-checked to see if I was wearing a shirt and saw the golden amulet lying outside of my clothes, a note pinned beneath it. 

"Sure, come in highness." I said, unfolding the bit of paper. 

In terrible, spidery handwriting, were the words Do. Not. Hide. It. Again.

There was no signature, though the presence of the note did make me feel a little better. It wasn't a dream then. 

The door swung open, and Anna entered, a spirit chattering at her. 

"Master, this one was meant for you, but you must have been out," She said batting the spirit away. "It's talking about a dinner of some sort?"

It had completely swept my mind. 

Dinner. 

With the Headmaster and Chronicler. 

"Right! Yes! I completely forgot we've got dinner plans. Have you eaten yet?"

"Dinner plans? With who?"

"A couple of mages at the school. We hit it off this afternoon, and I'd like you to meet them."

The spirit chattered at Anna one last time before vanishing, job done. 

I sat up, and rubbed my eyes, the Weaver's amulet glinting in the sunlight. 

I heard Anna tsk under her breath. She sat beside me and held the small, golden spider amulet in her hand. 

"You weren't wearing this yesterday." She said, a hidden accusation in her voice. 

She was here, and you didn't call me. 

"Not true highness, I was wearing it yesterday. I've been wearing it for months now. I usually wear it under my clothes, but I think the Weaver is staking a public claim to my soul." 

I handed her the note. 

"You two are strange about each other, master." She said, handing the note back. "Though your eyes are glowing particularly golden today, which means you've seen her recently."

"Depends on what the time is." I said shrugging. "She was waiting for me as I left the School campus, scaring the hell out of the headmaster."

"You could have called, sir." She said sullenly. "You're not the only one who wants to see her."

I put my hand on her head, messing her hair up. "If you like, highness, we can visit her shine in the Temple of the Seven after dinner. I can't promise that she'll be waiting there, but it might make you feel a little less left out."

"I don't feel left out, Lukas. I just miss her, I haven't seen her for months, and no matter how much I ask, she doesn't come."

I studied my apprentice for a moment. There was no hidden motive in her desire, she genuinely missed the goddess.

"She's been calling me, but I can't answer her, not in the way I answer you. The Weaver whispered. There are rules. They just don't apply to the Twisted Weave."

 "She can't, highness. There are rules apparently, ones she can't break. There's something special about my weave that allows her to bend them, but without me, there's nothing she can do."

"You're here now though."

"She's not a pet that comes when called, highness," I said reprovingly.

Anna sighed. She stood up. "Yes, sir. I'll go get ready, and we can leave."

"As you say, highness."

*

It was a lovely evening in the city of Poets. The setting sun lit the marble towers, walls, manors and palaces ablaze, and I found myself in a contemplative mood as I walked with Anna to the Headmaster's home. 

Anna walked quietly next to me, obviously still depressed by our earlier conversation. 

I knew better than to try to cheer her up when she was in this mood. 

So we walked in silence. 

"What did you talk about?" Anna asked eventually. 

"Hmm?" 

"You and the goddess, what were you talking about?"

"She was telling me about the first spirit, but she didn't get the chance to finish what she was saying. It was interesting though. Apparently, the Spirit King woke the first spirit because the gods weren't doing their jobs properly."

"And?"

"That's as far as she got."

"Hmmm."

And the silence returned. 

It stayed until just before we arrived at the headmaster's home. 

It was a modest building, detached from the larger, more refined houses on either side of it, a stone path led through a small garden to the front door, green, unadorned. 

"He lives here?" Anna asked, barely hiding the disappointment in her voice. 

"Not large enough for you, highness?" I asked, surprised, and a little dismayed by her comment. 

"You know I don't care about that, Lukas. I was just expecting a more…magical building. He's the headmaster after all."

"Towers are very inconvenient highness, they're constantly swaying in the wind, and there are always far too many steps to get anywhere."

She sighed. "Magic is a lot more boring than I thought it would be."

I dumped a bucket of water on her head. 

"Are you bored now, highness?" I asked as she wiped the water from her brow. 

A deluge of water flooded over me, much greater, and colder, than the one I had dumped on her. 

It took a good five seconds before the water stopped, and the street below me was flooded. 

"That's nice, Lukas, right before we go to dinner, you ruin my clothes with water." She muttered, wringing her hair out. 

Her clothing steamed and soon she was perfectly dry. 

I on the other hand was not.

Of course, it was at that moment that the headmaster opened his door. 

He was grinning widely. 

"Nicely done!" He said applauding. "I just caught the tail end of that, but it was an impressive display of control."

My clothing steamed and soon I was warm and dry, even if my hair was not. 

I patted at it and then looked for the green band the princess had given me. 

It wasn't there. It had washed away in the flood.

I sighed. 

"What's wrong?" Anna asked as the headmaster approached us.

"I lost your hairband." 

Anna handed me another one. 

"I have plenty of them, master." She said. 

"You have a lovely home, headmaster." Anna said to the approaching elf, curtsying politely. 

"Thank you, apprentice?"

"Anna."

"Anna. Thank you very much. Your temperature control is very good."

"Thank you, sir." She replied. "He dumps a bucket of water on my head at least twice a week, I had to learn quickly how to dry myself afterwards."

"An outdated way to teach, Lukas." The elf said, grinning, "Better I suppose than an elf I heard about back in the forests. She used dirt."

Ilargia began to vibrate gently in his holster. 

"Come in, come in, Ted is just about finished. He's been cooking since you left."

He looked around. "Your…other companion won't be joining us, will she?"

I shook my head. "No sir, she's busy. She does send her regards though."

His shoulders dropped, visibly relieved. 

"Other companion?" Anna asked. 

I tapped the golden amulet on my chest. 

"That's another person who saw her before I did." She said, irritated. 

At least she wasn't depressed anymore. There really is nothing like a bucket of water to shake one from a stupor. 

"How did you ever come to be involved with so illustrious a person, Lukas?" The headmaster asked, holding the door open as we entered his home. 

"A long story, sir." I replied.

"One I hope to hear."

"As you say, sir."

I stepped inside, Anna following close behind me. 

His home was warm, and filled with just the most wonderful smells. Various knickknacks lined the walls, including paintings and carvings from all over the continent. 

All over the world, probably. 

"Was it a pleasant walk, Anna?"

"The city is beautiful, headmaster."

"An awful place to live though." The headmaster replied. "We'll be heading back to the forests soon, and I think Ted will be returning to the main campus in Arantha at the end of the week."

He led us through an open doorway and directed us to sit down. 

The room was long, probably the length of the whole house, and I could see into the kitchen on the far side, where the Chronicler and an elven woman were engaged in a friendly debate over something I couldn't quite make out. 

Between the kitchen and where we sat was a dining space, with a display cabinet up against the left wall, and a bookshelf opposite it on the right. 

A dark-stained, wooden table with six high-backed chairs around it, two on opposite ends, and four in the middle, two on either side. 

It was very domestic, and I felt my heart ache at the sight of it.

"Oh?" I asked, taking the offered seat, Anna sitting on the sofa beside me. "So the school is closing down for good then?"

"It was dying down anyway." He said and fell heavily into a leather armchair. He focused for a moment, and the fireplace burst into flames.

"So you're from the forests then?" Anna asked curiously. 

"Most full-blood elves are, Anna." The headmaster shrugged. "There are a few clans that have settled elsewhere, but for the most part we tend to stay in the forests."

"The headmaster here is from Clan Greywind." I told Anna. "Most elven mages come from there, though we aren't quite sure why."

"Something to do with the water I suppose." The headmaster cut in. "Most half-elves don't know that, Lukas."

"I'm claimed sir, Golden Leaf took me in."

"That makes sense! Leira is from Golden Leaf. Leira!" He called back. "Lukas is claimed by your clan!" 

Leira turned her head and spotted us in the sitting room at the far end of the room. She wiped her hands off on a cloth and greeted us warmly.

She was very much your stereotypical Golden Leaf elf. She looked much like my father, tall, slender, blonde, and green-eyed, but where his expression was never far from a tired weariness, hers was bright and happy. 

I didn't recognise her, I'd only been in the clan for a few months before leaving with my master. 

Judging by the way she was looking at me, the lack of familiarity wasn't mutual. 

"Lukas? You're the half-elf!" She said, her green eyes bright with excitement. "Elias! This is him! He's the one that I was telling you about. The one that left to be a mage."

The headmaster, Elias, looked at me surprised. "Your story just keeps getting more and more interesting, master Lukas." 

"Coliat na mai, brother," Leira said, greeting me in the Golden Leaf dialect. 

"Gt'era, na mai, sister," I replied, hesitantly. 

She grinned. 

"Tree…something." Elias said. "You Golden Leaves speak the most barbaric dialect."

"We're further in than you, Elias. We speak the original dialect." Leira grabbed a chair from the dining table and sat beside her husband. 

"Is it true?" She asked. "What you did? How you got the old clan chief banished."

I winced at every one of her words but nodded. "Yes, it's true."

"Can I see?" She stood and knelt in front of me, reaching for my shirt. 

There was no such thing as personal space in the clan. Most Golden Leaf elves cooked more than they needed to in case a guest dropped in unannounced. It was also the reason why there were always plenty of beds and bedrolls in every house. 

It was another reason why Golden Leaf elves tended to get married younger than other elves. A tendency towards physical affection and no personal boundaries naturally resulted in plenty of weddings among the clan youth, most of them even voluntary.

This natural affection didn't extend to other elves, and certainly not other races. Which is why it was a very rare thing for there to be Golden Leaf half-elves and one of the many reasons my father and mother were so despised by the clan before my bravery changed their minds. 

I didn't stop her as she grabbed the buttons of my shirt and began to undo them. 

Anna was shocked at the familiarity though.

"It's okay, Anna," Elias said. "This is normal among Golden Leaf elves. They have no boundaries."

She undid the last button and pulled my shirt open, revealing the white scars underneath. 

"It's really true what they say then," she said, tracing her fingers along them. "You really did it."

She counted the stripes. "I didn't believe them. One, Two, Five? And you must have been, what, nine at the time? Ten?"

I nodded, "Nine," I gently pushed her hand away. "You weren't there?"

She shook her head. "No, I didn't want to go to the sentencing. I've always hated them. I was so glad when the chief did away with them."

"Lukas? What are those?" Anna asked, looking at my chest. 

"The price of freedom, ma'am." I replied and buttoned up my shirt. 

Leira sat back beside her husband. 

"More than that, uath." She said to Anna. "My little brother there changed everything. He's the reason the Golden Leaf clan has claimed every single one of its half-elves. If you have Golden Leaf blood in you, you're a full elf according to clan law."

"It wasn't all that much, highness." I said. "Leira is overexaggerating things. The clan was already chafing under the boot of the previous chief. He was going to be deposed sooner than later."

The expression on the princess's face said everything. 

"It's not pleasant dinner conversation Anna, I'll tell you later."

"Speaking of which," Leira snapped her fingers. "Sorry, Ted! I'll be there now."

She dashed back to the kitchen. 

The headmaster was looking at Anna appraisingly. 

"Is this your first time outside of Arantha, Anna?" He asked. 

"It's been quite the adventure, sir." Anna replied. "I helped heal a count, fought a black mage, and now I'm having dinner with a headmaster."

"You fought a black mage?" His eyes flicked to mine. Apprentices weren't allowed anywhere near black mages until after graduation. 

I raised a hand. "I fought the black mage, sir. Anna healed the spirit."

"Ah! That makes sense, I didn't take your master for a fool." 

"A fool, sir?"

"Apprentices aren't allowed anywhere near black mages until after they've graduated," I explained. "If you were a normal Academy student and not a personal apprentice, you would have been assigned a new teacher, and I would have been disciplined severely."

"Technically he should still be." Elias said, "But, I'm not a headmaster anymore, and Ted there didn't hear what we said, so he should be fine."

"No sir!" The Chronicler shouted from the kitchen. "Didn't hear a thing."

Elias chuckled. "How long have you been studying, Anna?"

"A year?" Anna turned to me. 

I shook my head. "Almost. I was assigned as your teacher in April, so we're a few months shy of a full year."

"Just short of a year."

"Incredible." Elias sat back in his chair, amazement plain on his face. "And you're able to heal a spirit already. Absolutely incredible."

Anna looked down, a faint blush forming on her cheeks. "Thank you, sir."

"Dinner's up." The Chronicler announced from the dining room. 

*

The food was good. Very good. And all the better when compared to the travel rations Anna and I had been eating for the last ten days.

"Good job on this, Ted," Elias murmured. 

"Thank you, sir." The Chronicler pushed his plate away from him and sat back in his chair. 

"So, you're from the Academy, huh?" He said, looking at the two of us, smiling slightly. 

I swallowed. "Not quite, sir. We're from Arantha, but Anna is a private apprentice."

"An old way of doing things." The Chronicler nodded, approvingly. "It's good that the old ways are being kept alive."

"Indeed, you should have seen her earlier," Elias remarked. "She practically drowned her teacher."

"Oh ho? And what did he do to deserve that, Anna?" He asked, eyes twinkling. 

Anna was smiling, but her ears were a light shade of pink. She didn't handle sincere praise very well. 

"He…uh…he…"

"I dumped a bucket of water on her head." I confessed.

"He does it at least twice a week." Anna said quietly. 

The Chronicler laughed. "An old way of teaching too! Reminds me of the stories of Elra, don't you think sir?"

I felt Ilargia warm slightly. 

"Water is quite a bit more kind than soil, Ted." 

"Effective though, her students were always leaps and bounds ahead of their peers."

"Yes, but they all hated her." The headmaster tapped the table. "And a lot of them ended up falling."

"And thus the problem with the technique." The Chronicler gave Anna a kind smile. "But, if that's the way your master is teaching you, it's no surprise you're able to do so much so young."

"Is it really so rare?" I asked, pushing my plate away from me. 

"Now? Yes. Back when Elias and I were boys? Also yes. We abandoned it after what happened to Elra."

"That's just a story, Ted." Elias said. "

Ilargia began to vibrate. 

What? I asked the staff, surprised. This was unusual, even for him.

- Nothing, came the response. He didn't stop vibrating. 

"All stories have a kernel of truth to them, sir, you know that, and the Academy has plenty of records of her students and the havoc they caused when they fell." The Chronicler countered. 

"Wait. The technique creates spiritbreakers?" I asked, confused. I'd never once been tempted to fall. 

"It's a technique that thrives on negative feelings. I take it your teacher taught you the same way?"

I nodded slowly.

"And you never once thought about tossing him off a cliff?"

"I threw him down a mineshaft." I shrugged. "But I thought I had to do that to become a mage?"

The Chronicler chuckled, "See? That's the problem. Spirits respond best to positive reinforcement and gentle teaching. Your way of teaching tends to foster resentment and anger."

"I never really felt that way about my teacher." I said, slowly. "Disappointed, yes, but never angry."

"I haven't either." Anna said. "Frustrated yes, annoyed too, but never angry. It just spurred me on to study harder."

"You two are the reason the technique hasn't been outlawed entirely, but it's been largely done away with in favour of the stricter, more academic, theoretical way of teaching that we use now. It's much much slower, and the mages it produces are nowhere near as powerful, but it results in fewer casualties."

I was stunned.

The Chronicler saw my expression. 

"Relax lad, there's a strong bond between your student and yourself. It's the kind of bond that is essential to the whole process. If you don't love your student, and if your student doesn't love you in return, the method fails, and six times out of ten, the apprentice turns to shadow."

Which explains why Raethan fell. The Weaver said that the book didn't corrupt him, just that it gave him the capacity for corruption. I corrupted him. Which means it was my fault. I doomed the world. 

I felt nauseous, dizzy. Ilargia heated up on my back, and I felt the nausea pass. 

"I didn't know." I said, my voice a little unsteady. 

 "Lukas?" Anna asked, sensing my distress. She put her hand on my arm, a greater comfort than she realised. 

"I'll be fine, highness." I said, smiling weakly. "Just a little surprised is all."

"I have a question, apprentice," Leira said, changing the subject. 

"Anna." Anna corrected. "Just Anna." 

"Anna. Why does your teacher call you highness?"

"That, my love, is because the young lady sitting over there," Elias said, nodding at Anna, "is the Crown Princess of Arantha, and royal heir to The Kingdom."

Leira shook her head. "A princess." She sighed. "Of course. That was very unfair of you, brother." She said, looking at me. "You could have told me."

I took a deep breath. "Sorry, Leira. We've been keeping it under wraps."

"That's right. Right now, I'm not princess Anna, I'm apprentice Anna. I'd like you to treat me as though that's all I was, Lukas's apprentice."

"That makes you my niece then." She said, smiling brightly. "Along with all the other children your age in the clan."

She stood up from her position at the end of the table, walked behind Anna, and hugged her from behind. "Hello, Niece Anna."

Anna was a little startled but hugged Leira's arms to her. "Hello, Aunt Leira."

I looked up at Leira, who was looking at me, concerned. 

"Thank you, sister." I mouthed. She had effortlessly taken the attention off me. 

She winked. 

"Oh, this isn't the half of it, love, Anna is only the second most important person I've seen today." Elias pointed out after Leira returned to her seat.

"Is the queen here?" Leira asked. 

I sighed, "Sir, do we really need to bring this up?"

"I'm curious, Lukas, and you're full of interesting stories. Come now, tell us how you managed to get the Weaver herself to wait for you outside the School?"

"The Weaver…the goddess Weaver? Like the White Spider, one of the Seven?"

"Is that what terrified you so much today sir?" The Chronicler asked. "A goddess?"

"She's certainly one of the things at least."

"Is that why you wear her mark?" Leira asked, looking into my eyes. "There's something different about you, brother."

I blinked and pushed her away. "You know her mark?"

"I'm not blind Lukas, anyone that knows even the least about the Weaver would recognise her mark on you. You're favoured."

"Did you see his weave too?" Elias chuckled. "I was hoping you'd get a look at it, you've always been better at the weird stuff than I have."

"I didn't." She reached out and grabbed my face. "Look at me."

I did as she asked. 

And I saw tears form in her emerald green eyes and felt her hands tighten on my face. 

"So much pain, brother. So much suffering. Such sorrow, and grief, and loss, and misery."

She pulled her chair closer to me and engulfed me in a hug. "How do you endure it?"

"I wish you hadn't seen that, sister." I whispered so that only she heard me. She hugged me tighter, the unmistakable scent of the forest in her hair. 

She smelled of home. 

I'd never considered the forest my home. My home had always been the palace, with Anna, but the elven part of me always yearned for the endless canopies of the Elven homeland. 

And being so close to another member of my clan was making me homesick.

She let go of me and sat down on her chair, which was now right beside mine. She grabbed my hand. 

"His weave is terrifying, Elias. Broken, yet whole, shredded, yet healed. It's like there are two of him."

"I saw that too." Elias said, nodding, "Thanks for confirming it, so, Lukas, tell us of the goddess, and how you have managed to catch her interest."

I gently removed my hand from Leira's. "She's my friend." I shrugged. "That's really all there is to it. I'm not a priest, I don't act like a servant or a slave, I talk back, and argue, and tease and speak openly with her, and she likes that I think." I smiled fondly, "I think she likes the fact that I don't treat her like a goddess."

"You do know that befriending a goddess is tantamount to blasphemy, and of course could get you kicked out of the Academy." The Chronicler chuckled. "You play by your own rules, lad. I of course, officially don't believe a single word you just said." He winked, "But your smile is perhaps the best evidence of their existence I've ever seen."

"Careful sir." I warned, "The Weaver is cunning. She'll wrap you in silk so thin you won't even feel it, and then without warning, you're hers completely." 

"I'll take that under advisement." He looked at me for a long while. "Sorry, lad, will you indulge me for a moment? I need to check something."

"Sir?"

"Can I see your focus? Something's been bothering me from the moment you walked into the School."

- No. 

I shook my head. "Sorry, sir. He says no."

"Can I have his name at least?"

- No. 

I shook my head again. "Sorry sir, he's been acting up all evening. I have no idea what's going on."

- Don't.

That wasn't directed at me. The Chronicler's eyes widened for a moment. He nodded, as though something had just clicked. 

"As you wish." He said, not to me, but to Ilargia. "But he's going to find out eventually."

- No. 

Elias looked at the Chronicler thoughtfully, and then to Ilargia, and then to me. He shook his head wryly. "You have too many secrets, Lukas."