When I woke up the next day, Sivero was the only one waiting for me in kitchen. He swiftly brought me a cup of tea and another cup of a oddly blue liquid. Sivero pointed to the blue liquid first and then to the tea, recommending the order of consumption.
Begrudgingly, I shot the blue, alarmingly vicious fluid down my throat. It slide down like a slug, but I could feel the intense exhaustion in my body disappear. I quickly chased the elixir with the much more pleasant tea that Sivero presented me.
"Sivero, why was the blue stuff so slimy?" I questioned him.
Sivero made a fist with his right hand and place his left hand on top, nearly making a second fist. On his left hand, he made a rabbit ear-like shape with his middle and index talons. He bent his raised fingers, as if making quotations marks in the air.
"I'm just going to be glad that I don't know what that means yet," I laughed.
Sivero grabbed my hand and placed it in his head. He used his other hand to direct me to look directly into his eyes. I focused on his eyes and the thought of bright, blue snails came across my head.
"Why am I thinking about snails right now?" I questioned the old medicine man.
Sivero simply raised his eyebrows and nodded his head, releasing my hand. For the first time since we met, I could have a two-way conversation and know exactly what the Kenku was saying. I looked back in his eyes and made the connection that the snails had natural, magic-restoring capabilities.
"I don't know if I like your thoughts in my head, Siv," I admitted.
I could faintly make out steps coming from the further corridor of Galmiir's house. When Oda and Galmiir walked into the kitchen, I ran up to Oda and looked him deeply in the eyes. I could feel his confusion and shock.
"I'm looking at you because I needed to check if Sivero had given me a potion of insanity" I answered before Oda was even able to ask his question, doubling in the shock.
I looked over at Galmiir, who was thinking about how annoying of a spell thought detection was in my great-grandfather. In the back of his mind, Galmiir attempted to push back his worry that I would overdo it again.
"Give it a rest, lass" Galmiir griped aloud, "I like keeping my thoughts to myself, thank you very much."
"You'll want to save your magic for our armor downstairs" Oda explained.
"Ours?" I asked, looking at the ground to avoid accidentally reading Oda's mind again.
"She seems fine enough to work" Galmiir stated, taking a cup of tea down to the workshop with him and waving me downstairs.
Oda's bright green armor sat on a mannequin, perfectly mimicking the armor from his father's drawing. Next his armor stood another, smaller mannequin fitted in my great-grandfather's armor.
"Your final test is to enchant these armor sets," Galmiir explained.
He looked over the armor sets with pride, giving each a final inspection before placing his dear friend's book in my hands. I caught a glimpse of his eyes before he turned away, the feeling of sadness quickly washing over me and disappearing just as quickly.
"We'll make you proud, Galmiir" I reassured him, "And we'll even return to you one day."
"Just to make sure you're still with the land of living, you old fart" Oda laughed, patting a sentimental Galmiir on the back.
"Enchant these armors and don't come upstairs until you both are dressed" Galmiir huffed, "Sivero, it's time we old farts let these young smithies work while we rest."
Sivero nodded and walked upstairs with Galmiir. Oda sat on the workbench, admiring his handiwork as I flipped wildly through my book of enchantments. Considering the material of Oda's armor, I enchanted it with the ability to absorb even more poison and give Oda a resistance towards poison. For my armor, I gave it the ability to allow me become ethereal for a split moment.
By the time I finished channeling my energy into the armor sets, I could feel the magic flowing through coming to a standstill. I was just grateful that I wouldn't have to press myself any further today. Oda and I slipped into our new armors, making our way upstairs to meet Galmiir and Sivero.
Sivero nearly dropped his plate when he saw us walk up the final step, resulting in a belly-jiggling laugh from Galmiir. Galmiir walked up to us, admiring the suits in action. Oda posed like a statue with his arms flexed towards the sky.
"These are the adventurers I imagined knocking on my door! Warriors who worked for their merit, instead of being handed everything!" Galmiir cheered.
Cygnus walked up, rubbing head into Oda's gut. He purred loudly as he nearly sat on Oda's feet, locking Oda in place.
"Think we're ready for the Fountain of Spirit?" I asked, standing proudly in the armor Galmiir made.
"You're much better off than you came," Galmiir admitted, "I even put some more muscle on the two of you! The only way to truly know if you're ready for your journey is to take your first step... So you three will leave in the morning..."
"Why don't you and Cygnus come with us?" Oda pleaded.
"Boy, I am much too old for such things..." Galmiir tried to convince Oda.
"Will you please at least go visit Lady Pia after we leave? Let her know that we reached you safely for us, Galmiir" Oda begged.
"... You three will leave for the Fountain of Spirit to the North as Cygnus and I go the Lorshire in the West to relay your message, but I'm immediately coming back home," Galmiir compromised, "I would hate to miss when you three return to me to further your training."
Knowing the food would go back before any of us returned, we cooked up all the perishable food and made a feast of Sivero's findings. The kitchen counter and small dining table where filled with plates and bowls of fish, fruit, rice, and vegetables. With Oda in charge of the cooking efforts, the food came out looking and smelling spectacular.
"I remember the day that Titus came to me to tell me about the visions he was having," Galmiir began, "In his dreams, he would be traveling alone with Artemis' Bow on his back when a giant amphisbaena with a set of grey eyes and a set of yellow eyes would capture him in its grasp. The creature would squeeze him until he grew into a tree, freezing him in place..."
"I've read about that dream in the book he wrote about the crossbow," I interrupted him, "the dreams started happening after he found it."
"When one of the serpent's heads would go to snatch the bow, he would grumble to dust and left the head with grey eyes to run away. The serpent returned with simple vipers, each viper moving the crossbow slightly before crumbling to dust," Galmiir continued, "Eventually, a white fox comes across the crossbow and take it with them as they ran away from the hissing of snakes in the distance."
"When I read it for the first time, I knew exactly whose eyes he saw when looking at the amphisbaena," I interpreted, "My grandfather had ugly yellow eyes and my father has lifeless grey eyes."
"And now I've met the white fox" Galmiir smiled, "I was worried I'd get too old and die before you'd come along... I don't know how long Titus was working on that book, but one of the last letters he ever sent by Moti told me about his final vision."
"I haven't read anything about another part of the dream, just that it repeats almost night," I responded.
"Titus sat at the edge of the Fountain of Spirit when that white fox appeared once again, plunging into the holy waters," Galmiir declared, making a splashing motion with hands "A white celestial dragon shot out of the water, its fearsome roar calling down the sun and rising the moon!"
"Do you think Arlo will actually become a dragon?" Oda asked, concerned.
"Celestial dragons can change their form, so you may not even know if she did" Galmiir informed him, "Not that I've ever heard of that process working in reverse."
"I wasn't a white fox when you met me, was I?" I tried to relieve Oda's concerns.
"Not in the literal sense, no" Oda teased, earning smack over the head from Sivero and causing Galmiir to nearly choke on his food.
Galmiir told us stories of his younger years and places he had travelled with my great-grandfather, recounting stories of a time before such things as cities. The pair first met when Titus asked if he could sleep in the barn behind his childhood home. He and his mother ran an armory from their home, where adventures would travel for months to reach them. Not once in his life did Galmiir meet another dwarf besides his mother in Orah. They came from the dwarven kingdom of Mythorn in the North, escaping a life of poverty.
Titus stayed with Galmiir and his mother for a couple days after he fell ill. Once he was nursed back to health, he offered them multiple fine jewels and the promise that he would return with precious materials he found on his journey. By the time my great-grandfather returned with materials, he was accompanied by another high elf named Sariah. Her father had sent her and her brother to Orah to claim for his kingdom, but Sariah felt it should be surveyed before blindly claiming it.
Galmiir had been absolutely infatuated with Sariah and requested to join them on their journey, which Titus was eager to appease. Sariah had her eyes on Titus, despite all of their shared interests.
Galmiir watched as Sariah and Titus led the rising of the kingdom of Orah, helping them seemingly shape the future. He was there for the birth of Titus' three children and the adoption ceremonies of his other two children.
"When Titus told me that he was planning to crown Malo instead Luc, I knew a fight was going to break out," Galmiir complained, "Luc was the first born child to Titus, but Malo was the only one who wasn't a power hungry gremlin besides Pia."
"I always thought that Lord Malo was older than Lord Luc" Oda pondered, stuffing his face with food.
"It went Luc, Malo, Olympia, Leon, then Bastian" Galmiir corrected him, "Arlo's snake of a grandfather was Leon and Vincent was his only son. The only one to have more than one child was Bastian with his triplets.... Not that Malo got the chance to have any children..."
"When my father tells the story, my grandfather challenged Malo for the crown in a dual after my great-grandfather announced that Malo would be the heir to the throne," I recounted, not fully believing the story I was retelling, "Malo lost the dual, sending my great-grandfather into a deep depression. The power struggle between the settlements went on for well over a century before my father got word of the neighboring kingdoms looking to overtake us, allowing the power struggle to end until we're able to rebuild our troops and take over the neighboring kingdoms."
"Leon challenging someone... I would have loved to have seen that..." Galmiir growled, "He threw the throne room doors open with his bare hands and started swinging his sword around before Titus could say a single word... When he stood over Malo's bleeding body, he looked at Titus and asked him if that was what the ruler of Orah looked like..."
Galmiir paused and walked over to the furthest cardboard above his kitchen and pulled down a bottle of wine. He filled his mug with wine and sat the wine bottle on the table. Before continuing, the dwarf tipped his mug back and then pour himself another mug.
"When Titus found that the only way to end the war was to kill Leon, he wrote Leon a letter stating that he would give him Artemis' Bow if he would end the infighting," Galmiir sighed, "Leon may been wicked, but he was no fool. The rat brought his own son as backup to kill his father! If Sariah hadn't died, those children wouldn't have ended up so rotten."
"How did she die?" I asked.
Galmiir was flabbergasted by my question, unable to speak for a moment. When I looked in his eyes, the question of why nobody in my family ever told me whirled in my head. I looked away before anything else could be see.
"The Orc King Lazarus, father of the current Orc King, attempted to overthrow their castle shortly after Bastian was brought into the family. He was about behead Titus when Sariah ran to Artemis' Bow, picked it up for the first time, and shot the Orc King with a single shot" Galmiir answered with sadness in his eyes, "For a monstrous foe such as the Orc King, it took every fiber of her being to kill him."
"By going to the Fountain of Spirit, I should become strong enough to take down the Orc King of our generation," I tried to counsel Galmiir.
"His son has never radiated the same level of power or evil as his father, but he has a much more formidable army than his father ever did," Galmiir retorted, "All we can do is follow the path set for you generations ago, unknown and unexplained to you for your whole life..."
"All the grief and uncertainty has been worth the friends I've been able to make on the run," I smiled at Galmiir, soothing some of the worry on his face.
"Worry is for those who's destinies aren't fated," Galmiir nodded his head, "For tonight, we rest and we prepare our bodies for the days ahead."
We cleaned up our food and packed for the following morning. For our last night at Galmiir's home, I let Oda have the bed and slept on the floor. Since Cygnus started sleeping in our room, sleeping on the floor was just as comfortable as the bed. That familiar feeling of dreading parting our separate ways was swelling up in me. Despite the dread, I fell asleep quickly with my arms around the giant cat and my head on his paw.