Part IV

Justo tried to stop Joia. For his defining perversity was that he had to win and he was clearly losing, he couldn't accept this and with this his death was sealed as it should have been long ago. This may seem a harsh statement. But its fairer than it may sound for he had done many things that have yet to be related and if you are patient, you will hear of them.

He went for Trinity and this was the last mistake he was to ever make. He turned his fist to a bludeon and then struck her, so hard that she felt her skull ringing and she fell to the ground. Quick as a spark, Brian unceromoniously snatched him up from the ground like an hawk would a mouse and flew up into the sky with him an insane roar tearing raggedly from his throat. He flew high and out of sight then a minute later a crisped thing fell from from the sky, ashes trailing from it as it fell, then it hit the ground and broke into bits.

Trinity was beginning to go towards being mortified, though the speed of the events was so disorienting that she hadn't quite had time to know how she felt yet. But Joia had no reaction, she simply looked back over her shoulder as she walked a inscrutable expression on her face. She did not stop to help Trinity, she did not stop to examine the remains of her husband or even seem to care about them, but continued to walk away.

Trinity knew that Brian wouldn't come back, they would hopefully meet up later, away from the scene of what he had done. And it was obviously too late for Justo, the not even slightly handsome anymore shopkeeper. So she followed Joia. Her ribs hurt terribly from where she had hit the ground, but that was the least of her worries.

Joia was seemingly broken, too wierd to even understand, and they needed to leave soon. Trinity was under no illusions about the fact that her spell had gone horribly awry,(of course this was impossible to deny) but she didn't understand in which ways that it had yet. And it was while she was debating what she should do and when, that she saw the small boy as he disappeared through the grass behind the trees where he had been watching them. He was running towards the village as though he was on a mission, which he most certainly was Trinity realized, a mission to tell what he had seen. So Trinity saw that she needed to leave now, before the angry mob cried things like "Death to the witch!", and other trite phrases.

And unless Joia were to come with Trinity, there was no chance of her ever improving, if indeed she ever could. So Trinity was going to Nohna and she was taking Joia with her one way or another. If there was any chance that this situation could be set right, Nohna was the one that could do it.

"We have under an hour," a voice not quite belonging to Joia said.

Trinity started, and stared stupidly at Joia, wondering if Joia knew what she had been thinking or whether it was an accident that she had spoken Trinity's mind.

"The door is open, I can see where I will now," answered Joia smiling craftily, as though Trinity had spoken the words aloud! So Trinity purposefully went blank as she had learned during her training. Joia gave her a sharp appraising look, but said nothing else and Trinity could not be sure whether or not she had successfully closed herself, time would tell.

When they entered the house, Trinity was not quite surprised when Joia began to gather the things that Trinity had been thinking that they might need. Cloaks and packs, Trinity had more than enough for two, a little food, changes of clothes she went and got each thing as though she had lived in the house for years, even though she had never been here before. She got some money from where it was hidden and some necessary magical implements as Trinity looked on impassively, it was not a good time to show her feelings. "There, we have all that we will need!" and Joia stepped out the door without looking behind to see that Trinity followed.

When they got outside, Joia stood thoughtfully for a moment and then raised her hands and spoke words of power and Trinity's house seemed to burst into flames, and heat radiated out of it though Trinity had eyes to see that it burned not at all. By morning, it would appear to be nothing but rubbish, though it stood as before it would be hidden and relatively safe. This was a powerful spell, one that not many could control and here was her sister, with no training at all performing it as easily as one might cook an egg.

"I perform you a service as you have performed me one," Joia said wryly, then gestured into the woods behind the cave for Trinity to follow.

Trinity had always loved the forest. Many trees have spirits and Trinity could feel them so she had never felt lonely there, she had always felt a welcoming. As they walked this feeling grew stronger than it ever had before and it began to seem that the whole forest was waking up somehow, they no longer needed to find a path, it opened in front of them and blessedly, closed behind them. There would be no need to worry about pursuers, at least for now they could relax.

So they walked, Trinity feeling like she was in a dream and it was later in the day that the wind picked up, and it was scented as though it came from a place where it was always Spring and everyone was happy. Then the air seemed to converge and the leaves began to tremble in a peculiar manner, first here, then there. It appeared like something invisible was hopping from tree to tree just in front of them, thought Trinity bemusedly. Her mind began to wander with poetry and song, then suddenly the slyphs came into focus.




Trinity knew what they were and she was stunned and humbled, it was a great honor for an elemental to show themselves to humans, it hardly ever happened. Yet there they were, riding joyfully on the breezes that they brought with them, spinning and whirling in the eddies, playfully tapping on the leaves and branches as they passed them, making them tremble. One darted by a flower bush and gleefully threw the petals in the air. She smiled hesitantly at one as it darted by and it returned and alighted on her shoulder. Then it sang into her ear, with a sweet voice, "Greetings from Paralda! Her sons and daughters pay you tribute!" The slyph mischeviously tugged on Trinity's ear, then flew off ruffling her hair playfully as she went.

Joia looked back at Trinity and Trinity thought she saw a suspicious light in her sisters eyes, but she wasn't sure. "It's becoming windy," Joia commented inscrubably.

And so they walked and Trinity's eyes feasted on the Slyphs as they went and she cared not about hunger or thirst or fatigue, she was nearly too enchanted for that. Then twilight came upon the forest and the air was suddenly filled with lightning bugs, they converged around Trinity who was behind Joia, and flew much faster than a lighning bug should be capable of, so that Trinity knew that something else amazing was about to occur.

Then the Salamanders that had been flitting around her came into focus as suddenly as the Slyphs had done and she gasped. When the Salamanders saw that she could see them they let out a cheer, all at once, in little metallic voices and began to streak madly around her and in front of her yelling, "The children of Djin adore you, Lady. Ask of us what you will, it will be our privelege to serve you!" And they flew through her hair, cackling as they went, making it stand up with static. One flew too close to a tree and set a twig on fire as it went and she saw another appear to angrily chide it though she couldn't be sure as it was too far away to hear their tiny little voices.

This was unheard of! She was being courted by two families of elementals, and in the name of their Kings! She tried to understand this and she could not! Never had she heard of such a thing before! Trinity was close to smiling, remember, Trinity did not easily smile! Joia turned to look with flinty eyes, said nothing and continued to follow the path the forest was making for them.

So the forest led them on and eventually they came to a small stream. It was cool somehow acrid, the water seemed to have a health to it, to be more than just ordinary water somehow and she walked to it and splashed her arms and face luxuriously in it. And as the water ran off her face, she heard hundreds of tiny chiming giggles and saw the Undines that she had scooped up sliding off of her face and hair and arms and laughing as they dove back into the water. And they leaped and whipped through the water, smiling and laughing and waving at her and saying, "Those who serve Necksa welcome you. You bring us hope, we bring you peace."

And they jumped through the water making a fine mist and as Joia and Trinity walked along the stream, Trinity was misted as she went. And the Slyphs wafted through her hair and made it to curl, more artfully than she had ever been able to, into whimsical lovelocks as they went and the Salamanders crackled and sparked in the air around. Trinity had such a sense of well-being that she had never had before, she had never known that it was even possible to feel so present, yet dreamy at the same time.

Joia turned and glared at her and Trinity did not care. This was not her sister, she knew this now, that another resided there as well. It didn't scare her, she knew that everything would work out well and that she was going to have an adventure regardless and she lived for those. "Peh, why did I want to open a shop!" she wondered.

And they walked through the night until the night began to turn to day. Finally, the path led them to the foot of the mountains that divide the South from the North. And here they stopped, it was no longer clear to Trinity which way they should go now...now that the forest was no longer leading them. If Joia knew what they should do next she wasn't telling. She sat on a stone as still as a stone and said no more.

And directly above them, a small avalance of gravel from the rock wall that they were sitting beneath rained down on them and out peeked some gnomes. The stared suspiciously for a moment before they stepped out fully. Then, they bowed and said stiffly, as though they were reciting a lesson they had been forced to memorize, "We who worship Gob salute you, our lady. Only ask and we shall do your bidding." Then they sat down, smoking little pipes and watched the other elementals dourly and said no more.

As Trinity was marvelling over this, a shadow appeared above them. She knew it was Brian and looked up to watch him descend. He alighted, opened his mouth as though to speak, then took in the dance around him which he could see for Dragons can naturally see elementals, they do not need to be chosen.

He then bowed before Trinity, which she did not like at all and said, " I always knew that you had greatness in you. But even I did not know that you had such greatness in you as this!"