Beyond The Stone

Chapter 36

She didn't even know where to start.

"What exactly is a Lodean?" Tristan asked for her.

"They are a guardian race – a merger of elven and human blood. To them it was gifted the power of the griffon for the defense of the people. All too easily the cruel rise to power and oppress the lowly. It is the job of the Lodeans to remind those with power that their responsibility is to serve the people in their care, not crush them. Only then can there be an inkling of peace."

"But... I'm just a regular girl from a very different world," Ava noted awkwardly. "I don't have any weird bloodlines. I don't even come from a noble family."

"But you are wrong," Uhtre'al replied as he took Tristan's hand and peered at it. "Did not the pendant prove it to you when it tested your blood?"

"Wha... how did..." Tristava mouthed with disbelief.

"A griffin came, did it not?" he asked.

He watched them studiously and chuckled. "I suppose the poor creature must have found the like of you very confusing. It would have sensed its master, but also found one he would normally consider to be an enemy. Did it cause you harm?"

"No... it just... sniffed us mostly," Ava replied with bewilderment. "I called it then? The monster?" she asked.

"Griffins are no mere monsters. They are very special, noble beasts. They possess within them the power to judge a man's intentions, and they can take his strength from him with a deep, fierce gaze. But they are animals, unable to discern the subtleties that can cause a man to act. To them a sword swung in defense of another and one swung in an act of murder are seen as the same. So they have been bound to the Lodea, who serve to temper their judgements with insight and compassion. This is the task for which you have been brought here, my dear," Uhtre'al informed Ava.

"H...how?" Ava asked, still confused. "That thing... I couldn't control it. I was terrified and there was nothing I could do to make it go away."

"You did not complete the incantation?" the old man mused as he got up to fetch the boiling water and pour it over the tea leaves.

"I... guess not. I honestly don't even know how I could read it," Ava replied honestly. "It wasn't like any writing I'd ever seen before."

"You could read it because it that language is your birthright," Uhtre'al told her as he handed Tristava a steaming hot cup of fresh tea, "as was the pendant which you were drawn to find. You should learn that rite by rote. To say half will only call the beast in your defense."

"I... I don't understand..." Ava admitted softly. Her mind was still reeling from everything that had been said as it tried to match it with everything that had happened. "How can... I be from this place?"

"People come and go through the gate often over the course of time," he explained, "In times of peace, there may be nothing to hold a Lodean heir here, but there may be need of him elsewhere in the greater realm. These passings are conducted as the fates see fit. Just as you have been brought here, your ancestor would have once been drawn to your own world to assist during a time of crises. Sometimes he may return. Other times he may choose to stay and settle."

"So we may return?" Tristan mused thoughtfully.

"It can be done," Uhtre'al acknowledged with a little nod of his head.

"So my very great grandfather Bithilal – who was recorded as spending a short while in that ruin I was exploring – he might have been a Lodean?"

"Bithilal? Ah, that explains all," Uhtre'al noted with a pleased smile. "I had wondered what became of him. It is good to know that he fared well."

"How can you say that? There was very little said of him in the records of the time," Ava argued. "He might have been slaughtered – he might have been captured and made a slave..."