"Ada! Garn! Up with the sun! Feilds won't work themselves!" The voice boomed up the stairway leading to the second floor of the small cottage on the edge of the forest.
"Coming Father," Garn yelled back, clambering out of the pile of dry straw that served as his bed wearing only his pants. The faint orange glow coming through the sackcloth that covered the window, along with the morning crows of the rooster told Garn that the sun had only just begun to rise. He pulled a clean shirt from a peg on the wall, glad that washday had come early this month. After the shirt, he pulled a belt from the wall wrapping it around his waist and knotting it back on itself and stumbled through the drape that served as a door. In the dark of the hallway, Garn heard his sister, Ada, fumbling around her own room.
Garn made his way down the well-worn stairs that opened into the common room of the house. A table sat along one wall with four chairs, bowls, and wooden spoons. Across the room from the table, a fire burned underneath a pot of gruel that seemed to cook eternally, when it ran low more vegetables, meats, and broth were added, resulting in a souplike mixture that had no one distinct taste. a door stood to the fireplace's right leading outside. Roots, flowers, and plants of all sorts hung from the ceiling drying for winter.
"Here, Garn, eat." A woman said, looking at a still yawning Ada coming out of the stairway, "you too Ada."
"Yes, mother," Ada said sitting next to Garn at the table. The four ate in silence as the sun crept above the horizon. Once they had all finished eating Garn and his father walked out the door to harness the horses, while Ada and her mother did the daily chores that had to be done inside. The rest of the morning was spent working the farm, plowing the fields, weeding, planting, mending fences. throughout this time the cutters, heading into the woods would walk to and from the forest casting disapproving glares towards the family. At midday after the cutters had made their way back to the village to eat, Garn and Ada were called to eat as well.
As they ate they spoke of things that were yet to be done for the day, hiding from the heat of the midday sun beneath a sheet that Garn's mother had hung from two nails on the side of the house. As they spoke an older man walked up the road, Garn's father rose, scowling and went to meet the man at the edge of the yard.
"Yon." Garn's father said, crossing his arms indicating the man could stop before he got any closer.
" Tarrik Sundheim . How goes the days work?" Yon asked stopping and leaning a staff he always carried.
"It goes. What do you want Yon?" Tarrik asked in a tone that indicated the small talk was over.
"No need to be like that Tarrik. Couple of the cutter lads said your boy and girl were trying to cast a spell on them. Looking at them with their daemon eyes." Yon spoke, casting a fearful glance the direction of Garn and Ada.
"Yon, we have been over this. Their eyes are not an indication of anything, they have gifts like any other, you have seen Garn's Talent , its only strength. You know damn well they ain't no Magi ." Tarrik said the last sentence with a venom in his voice that made Yon take a step back.
"Well be that as it may Tarrik, town's in an uproar, half of them want to come up here and string the lot of you up, the other half want to worship you and ask you bless their fields. But all of them agree, your kin, they ain't natural." Yon had pulled himself up to his full height, still almost a full head shorter than Tarrik, in an attempt to add weight to his words as he was the town speaker for Yogsglen.
"Yon, you know me, you know what I am capable of." the blood drained from Yon's face as Tarrik continued to speak, "So I'll tell you once, since I assume you have seen fit to leave the village in ignorance of who I am, who my wife is, and what our children have grown up thinking is normal." Garn and Ada's ears perked up at this, Ada showing no reaction on her face, Garn showing a sense of confusion. "If anyone who means this family harm so much as breaths near this farm, it will be the last breath they ever draw. Do you understand me Townspeaker Yon Vathron?" Tarrik spoke with the authority of one who could and would back their word to the fullest extent.
"Now don't go gettin rilled up Tarrik. I'm here because I know damn well you could kill the entire village without breaking a sweat. I'm here cause something needs to be done..." Yon never got a chance to finish, Tarrik stepped up to the man and said three words. "Yon, Leave, Now." his voice was completely flat, Yon took one look at Tarrik's face and fled, scrambling overt himself to put as much distance between himself and Tarrik as possible, as quick as possible.
When Tarrik turned back to his family he was smiling, and walked to the water barrel using the ladle hung on a peg to scoop up and chug down three scoops of water. He walked over to his wife, Kisha Sundheim , and held a quick whispered conversation. When they turned back to Garn and Ada a cloud seemed to have formed over Tarrik.
"Garn, Ada, sit. We are going to take the rest of the day off, we need to have a talk." Tarrik said, sitting on a stump used for splitting firewood. Garn and Ada nodded, uneasily, father had NEVER allowed them to take a half day off work, even on their nameday. They quickly walked over sat down on the ground in front of their father. Kisha stood to behind Tarrik resting her hands on his shoulders.
"Father, what did you mean 'what our children think is normal' when you were talking to Yon?" Garn asked, looking up at Tarrik.
"And why didn't you mention my talent? You mention Garn's with ease but never mine." Ada added.
"Firstly, Ada" Tarrik said after taking a deap breath, "I don't mention your talent because people would be very unwelcoming of it. As for what you both think is normal, its not your fault, its a sideffect of who your mother and I are. Garn how many of the lads in town do you think can handle sword, or a bow, or any weapon as well as you?"
"All of them probably, I'm not that good." Garn said with a shrug.
Tarrik nodded and turned his head towards Ada, "Ada, how many of the young ladies in town do you think are capable of the skills your mother has taught you, like lie reading?" Ada gave a similar answer to Garn, and Kisha laughed at this Tarrik chuckled as well.
"Garn, Ada, how many languages do you think anyone in the village speak?" Tarrik asked, Garn and Ada both responded with four, and Tarrik smiled at this. "None of the folks in town could best either of you in a fight. Garn I highly doubt there are more than a hundred people in the kingdon who could best you with any weapon. Ada, other than your mother, you are arguably the most adept woman I have ever heard of when it comes to the alethric arts. The both of you are more adept at language than I am, and I speak more languages than a vast majority of the kingdom. You don't realise it but the two of you are probably two of the most capable, deadly, and educated people in the entire kingdom." Tarrik finished his statement and looked at his children.
Garn spoke up, "Well that can't be true father, surly the royals..." his voice faded away as Tarrik began to laugh, a deep belly shaking laugh.
"The Royals?" He asked wiping a tear from his eyes after he finished laughing, "I have met more Royals than I care to count and none of them are a tenth the people you and Ada are, the whole lot of them are pompus, idiots." Garn and Ada both looked shocked at this statement. Kisha spoke up now ass Tarrik continued to chuckle to himself.
"Children, your father and I were members of the Order of Yanthrin, a sect of the church whos responsibilities were espionage, and the protection of the Royals. In the Yanthrin there is a group that are called the High Priests of Yanthrin, they are the ones who are responsible for the selection and training of all of the spies, soldiers, assassins, Alethricists , physicians, engineers, and multitudes of other positions in the Order. To become a High Priest, one must master every aspect and job in the Order, you must also forsake love, family, and anything that even remotely could be a distaction from service to the Order. We were both High Priests of Yanthrin when we met." Kisha paused letting everything that she had said sink in to her children, Ada and Garn looked at each other with wide eyes. Kisha continued.
"You know the kingdom is at war?" Kisha asked, and they both nodded. "The start of that war was an assassination attempt on 53 of the Royals. It was a blood bath, your father and I were with the King when the attack started, the two of us delt with the fifteen assassins that had been sent for the King alone. In return for saving his life he granted us both a boone. After that night we began spending time together, for our work at first, but then I noticed that your father was finding reasons to spend time with me. And I was doing the same with him, this went on for several months, until I was sent to scout out the possibility of assassinating the high prince of the enemy and was captured." To accentuate her words she turned and pulled up the sleeve of the long dress above her shoulder, showing the beginning of a spiderweb of scars that spread across her shoulder and disappeared under the cloth onto her back.
"I assumed that I was dead, they had begun torturing me for information, and was preparing to end my own life in service to the King, when I heard a commotion, several minutes later your father burst in holding a knife to the High Pirnce's throat, he came in cut me free of my bonds and carried me to safety taking the head of the prince as well. When we returned your father proposed. I hadn't even considered he felt that way but I said yes. So, with the head of the high prince, we went to the King, and asked to be released from our service. Our boones fulfilled and the head of the prince to boot the King agreed and released us from service. A year later you were born Garn, and a few after that, Ada followed. Your father and I decided to impart everything we could to you both and so we have raised you as only we could. So that is the gist of why what you think is normal is, in fact, abnormal." Kisha smiled at Garn and Ada, and Tarrik looked at them both a hint of worry in his eyes.
"That is a lot to take in. We both knew this day would come but this is not how I wanted it to come about, but eventually one or both of you would have realised that you were not your typical person. Take the rest of the day and think this over. If you have any questions ask either of us." Tarrik paused and swallowed hard, "And Garn? Ada? Know that no matter how you decide to feel about this, your mother and I love you."
The day passed in silence, Garn and Ada doing things that they usually loved in silence contemplating the things that they now knew. They went to bed and woke the next day, rising to their Father's call up the stairs as normal, but going to work in silence, and choosing to eat separate from their parents. Ada was the first to break the awkward air, on the third day she came down the stairs and acted as if nothing was different, and Garn figured that in some reguard nothing was different, but he still couldn't bring himself to talk to his parents. The next day Garn finally decided that regardless of what was said, they were still his family, and went back to normal. The relaxation that eminated not only from Tarrik, but from Kisha as well, once Garn started speaking again was shocking. They went through their day normally, laughing, and eating together.
The next day was midweek, it was a day that Garn and Tarrik went hunting, so hours before the sun had risen, Garn and Tarrik had saddled their horses and set out. As the sun crept out from the horizon, Garn and Tarrik were several hours deep into the forest. They stopped roughly two hours before midday, hobbled their horses with rope, and set off with their long knives and bows. At midday they had several rabbits, and a large badger in the game sack, they pushed through heavy bush on the bank of a stream that they had crossed, emerging from the bush they froze.
the scene before them was straight out of a nightmare, Garn looked around, his mind churning at astonishing speed, the Alethricists training that he had received from his mother kicking in as he looked for threats, targets, and escape routes... and found nothing. The ground looked as if a fire had burned everything to the ground until Garn knelt and realised that the soft loamy soil of the forest, had been hardened into a black slate-like substance, as Garn looked around, he relised that the bits of 'wood' he saw sticking up, were human bones. There were corpses with cloathing that had not been mutilated like the bones sticking out of the ground.
"This.... This was a Magi... Why, would... Why would a Magi be here?" Tarric said, his voice low and hoarse. Garn looked at his father and saw fear clearly etched across the man's face. His father quickly walked forward to the nearest bodies grabbing a longsword and tossing it back in Garn's direction, he picked another up and held it in his hand as he quickly went from body to body, looking for something. Garn quickly went forward and retrieved the sword thrusting it through his belt and knocking an arrow, keeping his bow leveled and half drawn. Tarrik finally found what he was looking for and retreated to
Garn.
"Garn back to the horses," now that Garn was less focused on guarding his fathers back, he could faintly hear the clash of swords, and shouts of men, punctuated by loud fizzeling pops and other strange sounds in the distance. "Garn! Run!" Tarrik said gathering their things and quickly covering his and Garns tracks as they retreated through the bush and crossed the stream once again. Garn began helping his father cover their tracks, moving slowly for an hour before Tarrik stood and began to trot through the forest. Four hours past midday they got back to the horses and climbed on, riding the horses hard, and making it to the house an hour before moonrise.
"Kisha!" Tarrik said, as he retrieved the other two horses, Garn using his talent to pull the waggon from its place in the barn. The horses that they had ridden from the froest were tethered to the back of the cart, and the two fresh horses were harnesed to the front. Kisha came out into the night chill, and saw what they were doing. "What is it Tarrik?" she asked. "Magi, less than a days ride. Here, battleplans, they are coming here." he tossed a pouch to Kisha who quickly opened it and went pale before turning and going back into the house.
A few moments later Kisha emerged from the house with a chest of dark wood held between herself and Ada. Garn was helping his father load some feed for the horses and the water barrel into the cart. Kisha, and Ada hefted the chest into the cart, and ran back to the house emerging once agin with two packs each. They clambered onto the cart, "Garn start going, I'll be there in one moment." Tarrik said sprinting towards the forest drawing his sword and lopping several branches from a tree. He quickly looped a leather thong around the ends of the branches, and then sprinted as fast as he could to the slow moving cart, tying the ends of the leather thong to the horses saddles behind the cart to disrupt their tracks. He jumped into the cart and whipped the horses into a frenzy, the cart gaining speed.
Kisha stood and placed a hand on Tarrik's shoulder, "We are too late." she said, tears streaming down her cheeks. Garn and Ada turned looking behind them and saw a human like shap, with strange proportions emerge from the woods, leading thousands of soldiers. The thing in from raised a hand and spoke its voice was painful to hear, and when it finished a loud buzz followed by a crack of lightning erupted behind them. Where the lightning had struck a strange shimmering light had begun rotating, it spun faster and faster, and the cart slowed.
As Garn watched the dirt underneath the light began to change into the black slate-like material from before, and anything on top of the dirt was sucked in. Garn jumped off the cart placing his hand on the cart and calling upon his gift, he leaned into the cart pushing it forward. When his talent had first emerged he had been eleven years old, visiting the blacksmith with his father, and had easily hefted the anvil that weighed as much as a small horse. Now that he was grown, Garn had regularly pushed the plow through the rocky dirt when the horses had tired. Despite this the cart would not move. Tarrik was there in a moment grabbing his shirt and pulling him in the cart. "Anything on the ground is killed, stay off the ground!" Ada and Kisha were huddled in the cart holding onto each other, Garn and Tarrik joined them, they all huddled close as the horses panicked, and despite the pulling of the two in front, the cart began to roll back.
"If this is the end know that I love you both very much." Kisha said kissing Garn on the head and holding Ada close. Tarrik nodded, and held his family in his arms. The straps on the harnesses snapped and the cart started shaking, it finally lifted from the earth, flying through the air. As they hit the shimmering light, the four of them screamed in pain. The world seemed to shrink and compress causing imense pain on their ears. It seemed as if it would never end, and at some point Garn stopped feeling his mother, father, and sister near him. A moment after he noticed their absence Garn felt himself slam into the ground, he grunted and groaned, the wind knocked out of him, he stood dazed from the impact.
"Mother! Father! Ada! Where are you!" he called out trying to gain his balance, he felt a hand on his shoulder and turned fist raised to find Ada hand rubbing her eyes. He lowered his fist, and looked to see his mother and father lying in the dirt, they were breathing but they were out cold. Garn looked around, searching for the soldiers, and saw where he was. His eyes widened, taking in the purple hue of the three suns, the landscape that looked like home, but most certainly was not the place he loved. And looked up towards the horizon, at the mass of creatures that looked disturbingly like the Magi headed towards them.
KAELI: Check the pages I made, it explains the thoughts I had on where the story could go if you want.