"This thing all things devours:
Birds, beasts, trees, flowers;
Gnaws iron, bites steel;
Grinds hard stones to meal;
Slays king, ruins town,
And beats high mountain down." ― J.R.R. Tolkien
I arrive an hour and fifteen minutes before the sun rises. I am eager to start my training. I barely slept. I stand outside the wall occupied by the Second Order. My head is covered by my dark brown mantle. It is chilly. I pull it tighter around me.
"You came."
I turn around: "I was too curious."
My words freeze in the air.
"You can't practice in that. You need to wear proper clothes."
I'm wearing a plain, but comfortable, brown dress.
"This is what I always wear, or something like it."
"You need pants and boots."
"I am a princess. Ladies wear dresses," I say in a mocking voice.
"I have to be somewhere at sunrise. Walter will have clothes that should fit."
He starts to walk away.
"Who is Walter?"
"His is the tent next to mine."
"Which tent is yours?" I shout after him.
"The blue one."
"Thanks! They are all blue."
He laughs: "Of course they are!"
He turns around and looks at me. "The big one in the middle of the camp. You will know it is mine the moment you see it."
I was looking forward to spending time with Lord Caith, but I should have known that he had more important things to do with his time than to teach me how to use weapons. I think that I could learn a lot from him.
I wander into the camp. The camp is arranged in a spiral or circular pattern. The inhabitants are only starting to stir. The camp is too big for me to take my time to find the 'tent in the middle.' The camp is situated in a clearing outside the city, but still inside the fortified walls. If I remember correctly there used to be a field of grain here.
I approach a group of elves standing outside a relatively large tent. I am intimidated by them. Some of them look as young as I am, but I know that they must be centuries older than I am.
"I greet you by the sun, and the lord you serve. May it rise brightly for you," I say with a curtsy.
"We greet you."
They do not offer me the traditional words that become me.
I stay polite. "I am princess Aebbé, daughter of-"
"We know who you are, daughter of Ardam. We do not take kindly to you being in our camp."
"I apologise for insulting you with my presence," I curtsy again, "but I have been directed by your Lord Caith to find Walter."
My father used to tell me that you should never anger an elf, for their wrath knows no bounds. So, I am stepping very carefully on the thin ice of their hostility. I've had years of practising my conduct in their presence.
"The human sends a human to find a human," the same elf addresses me. He has pale blond hair and black eyes. His eyes are cold.
My patience is limited: "I would love to stand here the whole day so you can insult me, but your training starts in ten minutes, and as of today I am training with you as well. So, tell me where Walter is."
Their eyes narrow.
"Aebbé, of Ardam, I will take you to Walter," the elf offers. "Follow me."
We leave his companions behind and walk deeper into the camp in silence.
"I cannot decide if I want to call myself your friend, or if I am to be your enemy, Aebbé daughter of Ardam."
"I do not have friends, and I do not know your name."
"I am Ludel of the family Strongwind, and you should remember my name. I have decided that I do not like you, Aebbé, daughter of Ardam."
"And I do not like you, Strongwind."
"You are honest."
He stops, and points to a tent: "This is where Walter-No-Name resides, princess Aebbé of Ardam."
Ludel Strongwind takes my hand. "We will meet again."
"Thank you for offering me your help."
He lets go of my hand.
I walk towards the tent that Elorhim pointed out.
"I greet Walter, by the sun he serves. May it rise brightly for you." I feel stupid talking to a tent, but I cannot walk into a tent of a man that I do not know.
"I am coming! Just a moment!"
A few seconds later, a blond-haired man emerges from the tent.
"Oh. I am Walter-Not-Named. Can I help you?" He offers me his hand but retracts it and bows deeply. "My lady," he adds.
He is a human, and polite. He must be in his thirties, but he reminds me of a young boy. He has curly hair and large brown eyes. His name tells me that he is a bastard.
"Lord Caith sent me to your tent."
"Caith did?"
"He said that you might have some clothes that would fit me?"
"He did? I do not have any dresses, do I?"
I laugh: "No! Clothes for training, Walter."
Walter blushes: "I do have those. Please follow me."
He holds the tent door open for me.
I enter the tent. I gasp at the enormity that confronts me inside. "How is it possible?"
Walter smiles: "It is elf magic. All our tents are like this. Space expands inside so it is much bigger than the outside."
The tent is enormous inside. I can see rows and rows of weapons, even more armour and chests stacked to the roof (which is at least four metres above my head).
Walter disappears into the neatly organised contents of the tent. He emerges with some white fabric in his hand, and a pair of black boots in the other.
"This should fit. Do you know how to choose a weapon? It is not necessary for you to choose one. Prince Eoghan already chose weapons. Can you find your way back to the clearing where we practice? It is not necessary. By now Prince Eoghan will know you are here. So you can just dress. Practice starts in three minutes," he says with a smile.
I smile back, but he is already hurrying out of the tent. I would like to become friends with Walter.
I dress and exit the tent. The elf that did not stand up when I entered the hall on the night that the Second Order arrived, stands outside.
"I greet you, daughter of Ardam. May the sun rise brightly for you, and may the moon always smile on you, and may the stars dance in your dreams."
"I greet you by the sun you serve, and may it rise brightly for you."
"I am Eoghan Elderlight, of the family of Dubhan Darkwood, prince of the Elves, and Second in Command of the Second Order."
Prince Eoghan is the first elf that is polite to me.
"I am Aebbé, daughter of Ardam. I greet you Prince Eoghan of Darkwood."
"I am to train you, though I have absolutely no idea why Caith would want to meddle in affairs that do not concern him. I will not treat you like a hatchling. If you want to learn to fight like a man, you will have to accept being treated like one. Caith did not instruct me to show you mercy, and I will not, but I will not ask you to do anything that I am not prepared to do myself. I do not use many words. Here are your sword, your bow and your arrows. You will have to put this on as well and keep your face covered. I am not prepared to risk animosity between your people and mine, even if Caith seems quite adamant about starting a civil war."
He hands the weapons to me, and after I strapped them on, he hands me a thick blue cape. I put it on, and cover my head. I am glad for the cape. The air is still cold.
"You must first get fit before you are strong enough to practice. Follow me."
He starts jogging at a steady pace. I follow him without question.
We arrive at the clearing where the others are practising exactly an hour later. I am sweating like a horse, and prince Eoghan did not even perspire a single drop. For the next hour, we practise with our swords. Prince Eoghan teaches me a technique and does not move on to the next until I perfect it.
Afterwards, I see Lord Caith approaching me.
"Princess Aebbé, I have a friend who would like to meet you."
I look at him – utterly dumbfounded. Someone would like to meet me? More profound: Lord Caith has a friend? He did not seem like someone who keeps friends.
He turns around and starts walking away. I have no choice but to follow. He doesn't initiate conversation as I trot after him.
"So who is your friend?" I ask.
He looks at me with his blue eyes: "You will be introduced."
I follow him down into the section where The Second Order is camped. The elves shoot venomous glances at me. He stops at a large tent – one of only five that size. He opens the flap for me and I enter.
Immediately upon entering I walk into a curtain of strings of beads and feathers. I part the curtain and am met by a wall of smoke. I cough. I almost cough my lungs up.
Lord Caith ushers me forward.
The smoke seems to disappear: it was there and an eyeblink later it is not. The tent is covered with rugs and pillows scattered everywhere. The floor is littered with many objects beside the pillows. I see a silver jug and the wet spot caused by the liquid that it contained previously; a wooden statue of a nude woman with enormous breasts; a wooden cage with two small red-and-black birds and a gilded golden cage with one small yellow bird; pieces of broken plates; a handful of rubies; and many more things that I would need more time to discern.
Lord Caith steps to stand next to me. It doesn't look like he finds the scene odd at all.
"Idunn?" he asks hesitantly.
A tapestry parts and a hand emerges.
"Give me a moment, for a moment is what you have and what you later shall not have," a clear female voice says, articulating every sound – making her words sound like rolling hills.
The hand disappears.
Lord Caith urges me forward by pressing on the small of my back. He doesn't explain the queer situation.
A woman steps out from an opening I did not notice before. Her dark green dress is too long for her by metres. She has folds of it scooped up in her arms. Her arms are covered in golden armband past her elbows. Her hair seems to be piled onto a stack atop her head. She is biting a string of beads. She steps closer, almost tripping over her dress.
"You brought her? You really did? Oh, how delightful!" She squeals in excitement as the string of beads drops from her mouth to the floor.
I look at the obviously crazy woman with wide eyes.
She closes the distance between her and us, carefully stepping through the battlefield of objects and taking great care not to fall. She releases the folds of material and they tumble to the ground with a large thud. She grins, and then she hugs me so tight that my ribs hurt.
Just as abruptly she stops and pushes me away. She regards me while forcing her nails into my shoulders.
"Lord, there is one who is who will soon not be. I guess he never really was, or he stopped to be. I am not really sure," she says as her voice trails away.
She seems to have forgotten me. So luckily her nails stop digging into my shoulders as her hands fall to her side.
"It is not my place to know," she says decisively
"Idunn, I have begged you to not call me Lord."
She nods vehemently: "Yes. Yes. I guess I should really call you son, but that is not who you is."
"Son," she says unsurely.
She starts to take on of the armbands of and lets it drop to the ground. She takes another armband off and hands it to lord Caith. The third one that she takes off, she hands to me. I am too astonished to refuse.
"Three circles that will be,
Three marriages for none to see,
Two new days, and one sunset,
And-," her voice trails away.
"What was once mine to see, is now gone from my mind," she says sounding truly heartbroken.
Lord Caith gently puts his hand on her upper arm: "I know, child. I know."
I find it strange that he would call someone of almost his age 'child,' but she beams at the word.
"You are right. There was a child."
She puts her index finger beneath my chin.
"There will be a child who is not a child."
She smiles, and sees me as if for the first time: "You have brought her to me?"
"As you asked."
Her eyes immediately seem clearer.
"Thank you for indulging me."
"I am sure you have now scared her out of her wits. I think she hasn't run yet, because she is in shock."
"I am here. You do not have to speak of me as if I am not," I say for the first time.
She looks at Lord Caith.
"Make us some tea," she commands.
He turns around and heads to the exit. "Idunn, she is not of your people."
"Go."
He leaves.
I feel apprehensive at being left alone with Idunn, but I do not fear her. I think she is harmless. She takes a few steps and bends down. She clears the area and motions for me to sit. I do. I am curious. Why would she be here?
She sits down and crosses her legs. She takes another armband off and throws it over her shoulder. It lands somewhere with a clink and a thud.
"You want to know what has brought me here; what course of events have unfolded to have me sitting here."
I nod.
Another armband flies off in a different direction than before.
"Choice, child. Choice."
I frown.
"I was not always what I am now. I had a mind to think and... What is the word?... I could stop thinking."
She shakes her head: "No, that is not the word."
She is silent for the span of a breath. Two armbands come off and are thrown in frustration.
"Inhibit," she smiles, proud at finding the right word.
"You had control over your thoughts?" I venture.
"Yes! Yes! And the things coming from my mouth."
She beams, and immediately changes to a faraway look: "I am one that can cast my eyes into water."
She looks at me and sees that I do not understand.
"I saw now. But then it was not now."
I am still lost, but she thinks that her explanation is sufficient. She gives a single nod and stares at an armband before putting it in front of her.
"We were like clouds and rain. She can also touch the water as I do."
I am completely lost, but it is clear that she has suffered an injury to her brain.
"Yes. Yes," she says as if listening to someone talking.
She throws an armband at me. I duck.
"I took from my mind. From my own mind."
She feels responsible for the injury?
"Her heart he held, and his."
She scowls: "Thunder! If not speaking in the voice, I blubber!"
I have no idea what she is saying.
She rips four armbands off. They slip to the ground.
"I cut her heart."
I think she means figuratively. I really hope so.
"In the water, I saw. And I saw," she sighs in frustration.
"My ears hear my words, but my words, not mine."
She takes the last armband from her now naked left arm.
I realise that I am still clutching the one she gave me previously.
She gently puts her armband in the palm of her right hand. She looks at it in wonder and then she snaps it in half. She brings the halves together.
"See?"
I am not sure this is related to anything she has said previously.
She takes it apart and brings it together again.
"It is one that is two that is one."
Luckily footsteps enter the tent. Lord Caith places the tray in front of us. He sits down. Idunn pours two cups, spilling some of the tea in the saucers. She puts the pot down and hands one cup with its saucer to me, and the other to Lord Caith.
And then she takes a sip from the kettle. She smiles when she sees us looking at her.
"More tea you have."
Lord Caith smiles: "Have you told her what you wanted to?"
"Not what I wanted."
She takes another sip.
"What should."
He nods and takes a sip of his own tea. I replicate his action. We drink the tea in silence. When we are done she regards us in silence.
"You can come. Son, I want her to come. We must still speak."
He nods: "Princess Aebbé, Idunn says that you are free to visit her. She enjoys talking to you."
She looks at me expectantly. She will be crushed if I refuse.
"We must still speak."
She gives the most brilliant smile.
"Shoo!" She says good-naturedly.
Lord Caith stands and offers me a hand. I decline and stand up without his assistance. He exits first.
When I am outside I turn to him: "What happened to her?"
He shakes his head from side to side: "I will not answer your questions here, but rather in another place."
I frown.
He leads me up some stairs to a section of the wall. I follow. The elves don't spare him a glance, but they lift their eyebrows when they see me. After some climbing, he opens a door on a platform. I follow him.
He turns to me, sadness in his eyes.
A thought strikes me: "You knew her before?"
He smiles sadly: "Yes, I knew Queen-to-be Idunn Darkwood, but now she is just Idunn."
"What happened to her?"
"I'll tell you, but will you please tell me what she told you in return?"
"I will if I can remember, it did not make sense."
He nods: "I'm just trying to piece together what she knows. She is trying to tell me something, but what it is, is not yet clear. I suspect it is something crucial to the outcome of this war."
He sighs: "Elves have a lot of powers related to water, just like the dwarves and rock, the skado's shadow powers, and some humans and fire."
I don't interrupt him. I have never heard of humans with fire powers.
"Water is eternal. It is a path between the past, present, and future. The elves can do something which they call 'see into the water.' This means that they can see the future, or the past, or the present at another place."
I nod: "She said something about casting her eyes into water. I had no idea what that meant. She said that someone else could also touch the water as she can."
"She most probably referred to her sister, Aylissa."
"The queen-to-be of the elves?"
"Yes."
He earlier referred to her as Queen-to-be Idunn.
"She was going to be queen, but she hurt her head, and is now incapable?"
"Not quite the sequence of events, but more-or-less what happened. Idunn betrayed Aylissa, which in itself is utterly astonishing. They were inseparable until that moment. Aylissa was heartbroken and furious."
"Aylissa hurt Idunn?"
"No, not at all. Idunn did this to herself."
"What?"
"Idunn took things from her own mind. Although it is possible to take memories and knowledge from the minds of others, it has never been attempted by a self. I suspect that Idunn had a vision that motivated her to betray Aylissa's love, and that this vision terrified her so much that she tore it from her own mind."
I don't know whether it is at all possible to take thoughts from someone's mind, but something clearly happened to Idunn.
"You think this vision was about this war?"
"Yes, because it preceded the war with only a few years."
I nod: "I think that is what she tried to tell me. I did not understand her."
He smiles sadly: "It has taken me a while to get used to her speech and understand some of it. The problem with it is that her past, present, and future are all mixed in her words. She could be telling you about the weather, something that made her cry in the past, and give you a vision about the future simultaneously by only telling you that it is raining."
"The only thing that she did, that I thought was not related to what she was telling me, is that she took one of the armbands and broke it in half, and brought the halves together. She said that it is a thing that was one, and is broken into two, but brought together it is one again."
"It doesn't make sense at all."
I shrug.
"Would you please drink tea with her as often as you can? She must have a prophecy that she is trying to give to you. She would not have asked you to come back for tea if she told you everything she wanted to."
I am filled by a sense of foreboding.
"I don't believe in prophecies."
"Idunn is the most powerful seer I have ever come across. You should listen to what she says. I will try to help you decipher it."
I nod.
"It still won't make me believe in prophecies."
"I also never used to believe in them, but after having so many of them come to cycle, I pay heed to them."