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MIDWINTER MAGIC: THREE
Arista was still stopped with her hand on the door. This woman knows Kylan? Watching Jera enter, she thought that maybe this was an ally, someone to confide in, someone who maybe could realize the heart of the woman inside the girl. She finally closed the door to the workroom behind them, the occupants of the firehall only able to hear the question voiced somewhat eagerly. "Oh... You know him?" Jera wandered about the herb room, leaning here and there to feather her fingertips through various plants, where Arista and her mother might actually have to reach up to touch. "Know him? Not precisely. I know of him." She looked over her shoulder with a smile at Arista. "And I've been somewhat aware of your interest. I believe I noticed it at the Midsummer Tournament." Pulling up a stool and sitting in her mother's workroom, Arista felt secure in these discussions in this secluded place, beneath the stairs and behind a heavy oaken door. "Aye, he just... changed... seemed so... grown up. He wasn't a boy anymore. He was Kylan, a man." Even as her brows furrow in these thoughts, she watches Jera's movement with some jealousy. "He was the only boy to ever stand up for me and I've known about the betrothal forever. It's just, I know a lot of girls who don't like those they're betrothed to, but Kylan is different." She paused a moment to consider her own words then added, "I'm not making a whole lot of sense, am I?" Jera came back around to where Arista was perched on a stool and set her jar down on a table. She untied the string holding the cloth on the top. Tilting the jar and twisting a twig within it, she gently captured the object of this mission. "There now, Wallace... I think I've found just the frond for you." She gently transferred the small green caterpillar to a substantial complex leaf and watched intently for a moment to see if he might realize his freedom. While watching the caterpillar on his new perch and twisting the twig in her fingers thoughtfully, Jera commented to Arista, "Boys to men seems to happen overnight. I'll grant you that. I also know that what you say is true about betrothals, but... you are keen on this one, eh?" Arista left her own perch to watch the small creature more closely but standing just behind Jera and to her side. Wallace crawled up the leaf, even as she spoke softly. "Aye, probably too fond. He does nae even notice me." Jera had to snicker and turned enough to slip a hand out to gently brush a strand of Arista's hair. "Oh, he and others will notice you. There's so much of your mother here, how can they not? But, while they're still taken up with swords and such play, they're often a bit distracted." She lowered her voice, as if someone could hear them in this closed area. "They ne'er truly outgrow that, you know, seems to me." A ghost of a smile curved one corner of the girl's mouth. "Aye, so Mama says. Da is forever out questing this, and rescuing that and investigating something or other. I made him a favor for the Fall tourney, and never got to give it to him." The last was said almost to herself as she pulled the ribbon from her pocket and began to twist it around her fingers. It took a moment for the elven woman to realize the girl's thoughts had shifted again to the young man. "Aha, so how did he fare, your Kylan? I have yet to view the boards." "Oh! Well, he didn't win, but he had difficult early matches, and he fought well. He's still younger than the others, and when he gets to be their age, I'm sure he'll win EVERYTHING." Arista stops. Her speech had been fervent in defense of her hero and the object of her crush. Realizing how she sounded, she snapped her mouth shut and shoved the ribbon back in her pocket. "I watched every event, even though he never saw me." "I know this watching very well, though in my case it was self-imposed. I spent many an hour and many a day watching a handsome and gifted storyteller as he sat within a circle of his most beloved nieces and nephews... and he knew not of my presence." Arista blinked with realization dawning. "Uncle Ashe? You... feel something for him, like I do for Kylan?" Jera chuckled lightly, "Well, judging from your excitement, it may be something a bit different, but I do look to him, look for him, at every opportunity. Ashevathallion is a rare find. But surely you know this from sharing time with him." The girl nodded, eyes shining softly. "Aye, I do know... Let me ask, if Uncle Ashe had been competing in the tourney, would you have watched him, cheered for him?" "That is precisely how I came to notice your interest in Kylan at Midsummer. I was at that tournament hoping to see some of your uncle's skills which I had yet to witness." Jera scanned around them and drew over a stool on which to sit, lest she crane her neck into a crimp looking at the much smaller girl. Arista nodded as she pulled up on her own perch again. She regarded Jera intently. Here was a friend, someone who seemed to understand where she is right now, and best of all, she isn't part of the family. "D'ye know, I cannae even speak of this anywhere near home?" "And why not? If he is your betrothed, seems it would be perfectly expected of you to think of him, want to know of him, speak of him. Am I not understanding these things?" The girl shook her head, brow furrowing again. "Nay, Da and my brothers and sisters hear EVERYTHING. It's those ears. I cannae even sneeze. I dare not breathe his name else I hear not the end of it, or they say something humiliating to him about me." Jera covered a snicker, for of course she too has those ears. "I suppose we can seem to be all ears at times." Arista blushed and stammered. "No offense meant to you, m'Lady Jera... truly, I didn't think before I spoke and..." She let it trail off, feeling quite embarrassed. Shaking her head with a smile, Jera reassured her, "None taken, child. You surely do feel differently than your siblings and I can appreciate that sometimes their seeming extra abilities could be quite... bothersome." "Well, I wouldn't call them bothersome. The things Shane and the double twins can do, it's incredible. Weaving things out of light, and illustrating the stories they tell, and the music and animal noises they hear that the rest of us miss..." she grinned, "It's just that there are no secrets there, ever. I used to think Da was mad at me, or that girls didn't get powers, only boys. But the truth isn't much easier to swallow. It's us humans who don't have them. Not the way my family does. Nor the way Kylan and Uncle Corwin do." "Hmmmm... " Jera tapped her chin thoughtfully. "You feel you are missing something then? Tis a shame if so. They are not 'more'... merely different. Although, being Sithryn myself, it might seem easy for me to say so." Arista nodded. "I am missing something. I am... different from all of them. Da, Shane, both sets of twins, even Diana has her own magick... and I am sure you know the powers the dragonfolk carry." Jera regarded the girl quite earnestly. "Do not discount your own magic, not just of your ilk, but of your own... your very own personal magic... making the most of who you are, enjoying every moment that you live..." She grinned mischievously, "Not pushing too hard on the future, but letting it unfold before your eyes?" "Thank ye for the kindness, but there is no magic in me. Not like the other Blackthorns. Even Wallace has his magic. I'll never be any more than a plain old human." The girl seemed quite dejected by this. Curling to see Wallace slowly measuring the edge of a new leaf, Jera offered, "But Wallace, at this moment, does not know he can fly. He only thinks he's a worm." Arista also found the little caterpillar with her eyes and murmured softly. "Aye, to be ignorant of one's fate. 'Twould be a blessing to those of us fated to be just... us." END THREE © 2002 DP & SO along with all other participants ~ This and other stories may be found at Willow's End |