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Spirits Of Winter Solstice part 1
Five nights before Winter Solstice…
His toes were cold. Young Edwin Odesseiron sighed sleepily
and tried to burrow deeper under the covers. Snuggling up closer to his stuffed
bear, a huge black animal with glowing red garnets for eyes, pearly white
fangs and the somewhat incongruous name 'Mr Bobo', he attempted to recapture
the nice dream he had been having. There had been flying horses and bushes
growing candy-canes, he could remember that much. Alas, the dream eluded him
as the sound coming from outside the window penetrated his sleepy thoughts.
Actually it wasn't so much a sound as an absence
of sound. The world seemed strangely silent, muffled
and muted.
Edwin yawned and got out of bed, shivering a little
in his thin nightshirt as he did so. His room was strangely cold and the floor
was freezing. Rubbing his eyes he padded over to
the window and looked outside. The sight that met his surprised eyes was enough
to instantly shock him wide awake.
The world was white. There was no other word for it.
The gardens outside that had been the customary muted brown of winter only
last night were now covered in soft, white - stuff. Great heaps of it covered
everything, making bushes and hedges look like looming clouds. The sky was
a steely gray color, and more of the white stuff was falling from above,
making Edwin almost dizzy as he looked up to see thousands of whirling, star-like
little bits of it come spinning down. Edwin's mouth gaped open with horror
and incomprehension. Then he screamed like a banshee and ran out the door
to get some help.
As Edwin burst into the Great Parlor, red-cheeked and
panting, he was relieved to see that he need look no further for protection.
His mother was sitting on one of the great couches, examining some spell scrolls,
now and then marking something down on a sheet of parchment. Elvira Odesseiron
was an attractive, if slightly intimidating woman, with a striking face and
a voluptuous figure, and the fact that she was frowning irritably at her notes
did nothing to lessen the effect. Her red robes looked a bit thicker than
usual though, and the neckline was higher than was her custom.
"I can't believe this",
she muttered to herself. "As if I weren't busy enough already…"
Then she looked up to see her terrified son. "Edwin?",
she asked. "What on earth is the matter, dear?"
"Out-outside!", Edwin
stammered. "Something…something really weird is happening! White
heaps of…of white gooey, yucky stuff!"
"Or, as less imaginative minds tend to call it,
snow." This second voice smoothly floated out of the shadows on the other
side of the room, causing Edwin's head to instantly whip
around. As usual he hadn't spotted his teacher until
it was already too late to make a favorable impression. Vadrak Dekaras, the
Odesseiron House assassin and tutor gave his student a cursory glance before
stalking over to the window. Black eyes glared balefully at the whirling snowflakes.
"Snow", the assassin
said in a voice of utter loathing. "I hate snow. And while I certainly
didn't relocate to Thay because of the clement weather, I always thought of
it as a fringe benefit."
"Well, at least you're used to it",
Elvira said without looking up, twirling the end of her black braid between
her fingers.
"Yes, Mistress", Dekaras said. "It is
also possible to get used to a tapeworm. That doesn't mean you need grow especially
fond of it."
"But what is it?",
Edwin complained.
"Frozen water", Dekaras explained, pacing
back and forth and still glaring out the window.
"When the air grows cold enough the rain turns into snow before reaching
the ground. Now, Thay is usually too warm for that sort of thing, and the
Red Wizards have webs of spells in place to further control the weather. That
is why the crops are so good."
"Uh-huh", Edwin said,
his mind starting to drift.
"However",
Dekaras went on, giving him a sharp look, "the spells need to be continuously
maintained. Right now the new Tharchion decided that
the power used for that could be better utilized to enhance his upcoming Winter
Solstice ball. Add the cold winds coming out of Rasheman at this time of year
and this is the sad result."
"It's not dangerous",
Elvira told her son. "You may even come to like it. In fact, I think
your teacher should take you for a walk. Until you get a chance to investigate
the snow a little I think you won't be able to get any serious work done."
"True enough", Dekaras
said. "I suppose there is nothing like a practical demonstration to drive
home the destruction inherent in cold magic. And I have a couple of things
to attend to anyway. Since the snow is showing no sign of stopping any time
soon we might as well get going now rather than later." He turned to
his student again, raising an eyebrow. "It might be a good idea to put
on some more appropriate clothes first, boy",
he said. "Getting saddled with frostbite is not the best way to begin
the holiday season."
An hour later Edwin had gotten over his initial apprehension
at the strange and unusual weather. He was trudging through the snow quite
happily, now and then stopping to examine it more closely. The only downside
was the clothes his mother had forced him to wear. The warm robe was all right,
as were the fur-lined boots and the mittens, but he thought the huge red woolen
cap with his name embroidered on it in yellow letters was a bit too much.
It kept slipping down over his eyes so that he constantly had to adjust it.
"This is really fun!",
he said brightly. "I wish it would snow more often!"
"We'll see how you feel about that when it reaches
your armpits", Dekaras said dryly. The assassin stalked through the snow
like a hunting wolf, glaring at the drifts as if they had committed some horrible
personal affront. He had abandoned his customary black cloak for a thicker
winter variant, lined with fur and with a really deep cowl that he had pulled
up against the biting wind. Only the tip of his long nose was visible, and
maybe that was just as well. Judging by the tone of his voice
he wasn't exactly pleased. "Or when it turns to slush, for that matter.
Or when the slush freezes over night and makes walking down the street
a death-defying feat of bravery. Oh, the joys of the season are many, I quite
agree."
Edwin didn't answer immediately
as he was busy trying to catch snowflakes on his tongue. "Where are we
going, anyway?" he asked. He could feel rather than see his tutor's feigned
look of surprise under the cowl.
"You surprise me, boy",
was the answer. "I seem to recall that one of the more contrived customs
of Winter Solstice is the exchanging of hideously expensive and mostly unnecessary
gifts. All to the greedy delight of the merchants, I might add. In fact, your
Mother handed me a certain list along with what seemed to be the greater part
of the family fortune. And since I will be unable to get any proper
work done in this weather I thought we might as well get it out of the way."
"My Solstice List!" Edwin squealed delightedly.
"Did you read it? Did you? Did you?"
"I checked it, yes",
Dekaras said. "Twice in fact. I needed to make certain I wasn't imagining things. Now let me see if I remember it correctly…
Ah, yes. Item One: A Baby Dragon. Now correct me if I'm wrong, but didn't
we already go through all this pet business with that monkey?"
"But dragons are neat!" Edwin explained. "And
I would keep it in my room, honestly."
"Assuming the dragon left you one. Item Two: The
entire collection of Famous Curses cards. Care to enlighten me on the subject?"
"Oh, those are great!",
Edwin said, almost bouncing along. "You buy these cards, see, and each
one has a Famous Curse on it. Only you don't know
which cards are in the package you buy, so you need to buy plenty to get them
all. And then you play this game where you use the curses against each other,
and you can trade them with your friends and…"
"And there are how many exactly?"
Edwin thought about this for a moment. "I think
it's up to seven-hundred now", he hesitated.
"But they make new ones all the time so it's a bit hard to say for sure."
"I see", the assassin
said. "And imagine that those manufacturers would probably consider my
chosen profession an evil one. The world never ceases to amaze me. Item Three:
A Baby Brother or Sister." Dekaras lowered his voice to a soft hiss,
threatening enough to strike fear into the hearts of grown men. "And
how exactly did you expect me to procure that particular item?"
he asked.
"Um, I'm not sure",
Edwin apologized. "Mother wouldn't tell me where babies do come from,
but she said I might as well put it down anyway. In case you had a bright
idea, she said."
"Oh, I'm having several, but none of them suitable
for children. Let's move on to Item Four, shall we?
A wand of Monster Summoning. Something tells me your Mother did not read that
part of the list. The answer is no. Emphatically so."
"Awwww…."
"And you had better not pout or cry about
it or we're going straight home. You're not getting
anything that's likely to get you maimed or killed. Now, then. Item Five:
A Pointy Hat." Dekaras gave Edwin a suspicious look. "That's it?"
he asked. "A pointy hat?"
"Yes."
"You don't intend me to fetch it from the head
of some murderous undead wizard on the other side of the world?"
"No. Just a pointy hat. The red kind with glittery
stars on, like Magical Mr Mongoose wears."
"Magical who?"
Edwin looked a little embarrassed at this. "He's
on the Crystal Ball Transmissions every week",
he explained. "It's a show for children. He's
really cool, he sings and dances and there's storytelling. He has a sidekick
called Hammy the Hamster who's rather fat and stupid, and…"
"And he's a mongoose",
Dekaras said, his voice curiously hollow. "Truly, there's no business
like show business. Are these hats available in toy stores everywhere at a
price affordable to anyone willing to part with their house and most of their
belongings?"
"Well, yes. How did you know?"
The assassin chuckled morosely at this. "Just a
hunch, boy", he said. "Just a hunch."
He walked on, muttering something to himself that sounded suspiciously like
'Spirit of Winter Solstice! Bah! Humbug!' "Oh, by the way", Dekaras
remarked a couple of minutes later. "Your Mother wanted you to have this."
He handed Edwin a small purse that jingled merrily like a multitude of small
bells. "It's an advance on your pocket-money",
he said. "In case you want to get any Solstice gifts of your own. Or
you could just spend it on candy, I suppose."
Edwin thought this over for a moment. Then he sighed.
His Mother's hints were usually best obeyed. "What do you think she'd
like?" he asked.
"Oh, anything. She won't
be expecting you to get her anything really expensive. I would advice
against buying her Famous Curses cards in the hopes of expanding your own
collection though."
"I guess so", Edwin
admitted with some reluctance. "And Father?"
There was the faintest hint of a smile from the depths
of the black cowl. "It is difficult to say for certain as his interests
are so…flexible. My suggestion is to keep it nice and safe. No mention of
lethal weapons, dangerous pastimes or noisy musical instruments, and we should
all be able to survive the holiday. Still, you never know. Last year your
Mother gave him that book on last century Rashemani knitwear, remember?"
Edwin did, and shuddered at the thought. Galen Odesseiron's
approach to hobbies was to dive into them head first, without first checking
the bottom of the figurative lake for rocks, sharks
or giant man-eating leeches. The harmless knitwear book had inspired him into
knitting a full-scale replica of a Cornugon, which he had
subsequently accidentally animated. It had been a full week before
Edwin could go to sleep without a nightlight. "I'll get him something
really, really dull", he promised.
"Good boy."
"Teacher Dekaras?" Edwin asked, pushing his woolen cap out of his eyes once again.
"What do you wish for Winter Solstice?"
"Me?" The assassin slowed his steps and turned
to regard the boy with what seemed like genuine surprise. "You certainly
oughtn't to spend your funds on me. Why ever do you
ask?"
"Well…" Edwin hesitated. "I just thought there had to
be something. Everybody wants something don't they?"
"Maybe. But what we want isn't
necessarily something that can be bought. Important things tend to be like
that." Dekaras shrugged. "Never mind",
he said. "I appreciate the thought, but I suggest you spend the money
elsewhere. I will be absent anyway, as per usual."
"But you're never around on Winter Solstice!"
Edwin pouted. "Don't you want to celebrate Solstice Day at home
for once?"
Dekaras stopped suddenly enough that Edwin almost ran
into him. Then he turned around and bent down to look the boy straight in
the eyes. "I see I need to clarify a minor point or two",
he said. "I will only do so only once, so listen carefully. Winter Solstice
has its fair share of grand parties, but traditionally it is a family holiday.
A celebration of the small family unit so to speak."
"But…"
"And need I remind you that I happen to be employed
by your parents for certain business purposes, and thus am
not part of said family unit? There are certain proprieties that need
to be observed. We wouldn't want people to talk." The last was said with
a faint introspective sneer. Edwin didn't give up
that easily however.
"But", he said, "I'm
sure that if I asked Mother…"
"Enough!" The word was uttered calmly enough,
and without outward emotion. But as Edwin stared into his tutor's black eyes
he got the impression of a cold iron door slamming shut behind them, and he
instinctively obeyed.
"You will not bring this subject up again", Dekaras said after a few seconds, "to her or to
anyone else, unless you fancy starting the next year with a full week of detention
for willful disobedience." He straightened and turned around. "I
do appreciate your intentions", he said. "But
this is the way things have to be. And it isn't as
if I will be pining away in the streets. I will be spending Solstice at the
Guild as always, and they have an excellent cook. In fact, why don't
we walk over there right now? I need to drop something off anyway and you
can assure yourself that my accommodations will be adequate." The last
was said with a certain amount of irony, but the coldness was gone, Edwin
was relieved to notice. And he very much wanted to take a closer look inside
the Assassins Guild. He nodded.
"Very well", Dekaras
said. "To the Ravens Nest then."
Spirits
of winter Solstice part 2
Please email the author with all your questions and comments
Last
modified on , March 2 2003
Copyright © 2003 by Laufey. All rights reserved.