Friends in a Foreign Land

The next morning the gang sat around a table eating breakfast while speaking with the five members of The Hand. Regina shook her head, thinking about how lame the name was. "It seems that no matter what world you come from, young people are always trying to sound cool," she thought. By the time the meal was finished, the rogues had their orders of who to follow and what to look for.

As the team was cleaning their table, a group of people walked into the inn. Some were smiling, but the group had an air of danger around them. Immediately the whole party paused in what they were doing, and placed their hands on their closest weapon, mentally preparing their next steps.

“Good instincts. Damn good instincts,” said an older elf in the front of the group. “Before there’s any misunderstanding, let me say we were sent here to train some folks. I assume that is you all?”

Regina nodded and then glanced to Reyna, who held up a finger in the universal 'wait a minute' gesture before turning to the elf that had been speaking. “Could you tell me the color of the tabard you wore the day you first met his royal highness?”

The old man laughed before answering, “It was teal.” Seeing that Reyna was about to disagree. “It was teal, but if you’re a king you would probably insist that it was verdigris. Because he likes to be fancy.”

Reyna nodded, “He speaks the truth, Mom.” Looking back to the group, “Would you like to eat, or are you ready to start the training?”

“We’ve already eaten. Please show us where we can train.”

The team led these trainers to the underground warehouse. After explaining why there were rows and rows of cages, everyone helped push the cages about and used them to mark off multiple training areas on the massive floor. Once that was done, they went into one of the meeting rooms.

After a round of introductions, they learned that the older elf that had been taking point was Khatar Vaxalim, who was in charge of the training. He personally would be teaching general education and culture, which they learned would include an elven style of martial arts.

Next up was a middle-aged elf, who appeared rather buffed, named Nindrol, who would teach them forms for the heavy swords and war hammers and how to wield a shield properly.

While none of the elves were fat, the next one up took skinny to a whole new level, almost frail-looking, and her features looked slightly different than the others. They introduced themselves as Nym Yelqen of the sun elves and stated that they would be teaching the use of small blades such as short swords and knives as well as how to duel weld them.

The next elf that stood introduced herself as Talindra and said she was there to teach the use of bows, crossbows, spears, throwing knives, and any other ranged weapons.

A wood elf stood next. While still lean, he appeared to have more muscle on his frame than all except Nindrol. He said his name was Jandar and that he would be teaching how to track someone without being seen, how to hide in almost any environment, and how to survive in the wilderness.

The last two stood together. They were obviously mages, just from their clothing, and introduced themselves as such. Their names were Zeno and Aien and they would be teaching the group magic. Aien would teach the history and theory of magic, while Zeno would teach practical application.

Once everyone had their turn, Khatar turned to his fellow instructors with a questioning look. After everyone nodded, Khatar stood and announced, “We who have just introduced ourselves take an oath now before you to teach you to the best of your and our abilities. We swear to keep your secrets from any outside of this room, including the king himself. We will only report your progress and level of skill to his majesty.” When Khatar finished speaking, the other instructors all stated flatly, “So we all agree.” Instantly the party all received a notification of this binding oath being in effect:

[Khatar Vaxalim, Nindrol Naedi, Nym Yelqen, Talindra Tralee, Jandar Farwraek, Zeno Aragella, and Aien Dorthyra have sworn an oath to train you and hold your secrets. Breaking this oath will cause serious harm to them, physically and even more so karmically.”]

“Now that you know you can trust us I have but one question I wish to ask. How is it that all of you look like elves, but none of you speak or carry yourself like an elf?” Khatar asked.

The party looked to one another and back to the trainers, all of whom eagerly awaited an answer. No one wanted to answer, but the silence was rather awkward. Finally, Alexis spoke up, “We aren’t from here. We were born on another planet. We were brought here by the gods of this world to… try and help out.”

A whispered, "Twiceborn" escaped Jandar's mouth and all turned to look at him.

"Indeed," Khatar said while nodding slowly. “Yes, I suppose that would make a difference. Were you elves in your old world?”

“No,” Regina answered. “In our old world, there were only humans.”

"What does 'Twiceborn' mean?" Eric asked.

"It is an old term for those brought here from other worlds. Most scholars would refer to you as Migrant Spirits," explained Aien. "It is uncommon to meet someone such as yourself, but not unheard of. However, it is rare for a Migrant Spirit to be born an elf unless they were elves in their first life. But what is truly unique about your situation is that I've never heard of a situation where more than two people were brought over together. That we have six migrant spirits here at once… well, that's terrifying to me."

Elbowing Mira, Ramiro pretends to whisper, "Guess we shouldn't tell him about Liam's and Arden's groups that came over with us."

Aien's eyes grew big, but before he could say anything, Zeno spoke up, "There are two more GROUPS of you?"

“My, that does explain some things," Khatar said, trying to retake control of the conversation. "We have much to teach you. You will not leave here knowing everything, obviously. But if you listen and stay focused, you should be able to learn enough to blend in. We’ve been ordered to stay with you all for three months. We will build a schedule for the lessons and would like as much of your time as you can give us. I would normally ask if you had any obligations that could not be put on hold for the next few months, but since you just arrived, I assume you have the time?”

“No!” Mira said. When everyone turned to look at her, she shrank back a bit but continued in a lower tone, “There are cultists and slavers out there that we need to be tracking down. We can’t take a three-month break.”

“And our little group of rogues. Gotta keep an eye on those kids so nothing happens to them.” Eric added.

Alexis jumped in next, “I promised the former captives upstairs that I would teach them to read and help them find jobs so they can get back on their feet.”

“I’m sure we can incorporate tracking down the kingdom's enemies into your training without too much issue. And I think we can arrange for staff from the castle to help you teach the folks upstairs and help them find work.”

“You can do that?” Alexis asked, clearly happy.

“Of course. Now, what about this… what did you call them, little group of rogues?”

“It was a group of kids. Called themselves ‘The Hand’. Upset a gang and got sold to the cult. When we freed them, they refused to leave. Said they wanted to help us catch the other cultists. They’re young but have plenty of street smarts.” Ramiro said.

“Their skills are the typical stuff like stealth, sleight of hand, and such. They’re good kids without a home. We figured they know the town better than we do, and they wanted to help.” Eric added.

“Kids? How old are they?” Khatar asked, clearly thinking. “And where are they right now?”

“I'm not sure their exact ages, but they look to be in their early twenties. We gave them the names of some folks we think are cultists and asked them to find out where they live and work.” Ramiro answered.

"You send children out to find cultists!? Are you insane," snapped Talindra, clearly exasperated.

"First off, he just said they were in their twenties, so not children. Plus, they wanted to help, have more skills than we do, and know the city better than we do. What's the issue?" Regina asked.

Khatar waved his team back while shaking his head. “Okay. Okay. We’re going to help here, too. Jandar, when these rogues come back, I want you to start working with them immediately. It’ll be a couple of weeks before anyone here is ready for your lessons anyway.”

Jandar just nodded in agreement.

Regina motioned for Khatar's attention, "Why three months? Is something happening that we need to know about?"

"That was simply the time frame his royal majesty gave me. I did not question it."

"Actually, I was the one who came up with that," Reyna interjected. "Based on information from my divinations, three months is how long we have before we need to be moving so that you can be where you need to be later on. And we want as much training as we can get so there's no reason not to use the full amount of time allotted."

“I think that covers everything. If none of you object, we’re going to find places here in this basement to make our own during our stay. Tie up any other loose ends you have today because you’re going to be busy for the next few months.”

⚶

The next day found the group back in the meeting room. The party all had flashbacks of being in school as Khatar started lecturing. The old elf stressed that the topics would be challenging to internalize because they were being exposed so late in life but that they should try to act accordingly until the understanding took hold.

"Fake it until we make it?" Alexis asked

"I've never heard it put that way," Khatar responded with a slight smile, "but yes."

"We elves are unique in many ways. I'm going to assume the humans on your world are the same as the ones here and try to point out those differences and we can discuss any questions you have. The first big difference between the elves and the other races is, as I'm sure you've all noticed, we don't have to sleep. We can, of course. But typically we meditate for about four hours per night during which time we dream. For us natural born adult elves, we dream about our life. This allows us to continue learning and growing from our previous experiences. Honestly, I'm not sure how this will work with you all."

"I still slept all night last night," Eric said. "What about you Ramiro?"

"No, I did sleep but only for a few hours. It’s been like that since I’ve gotten here. Three or four hours a night.”

"Interesting," said Khatar. "Please keep me apprised of how this changes for you all. Now, moving on. The next difference is reproduction. It takes humans fourteen months to have a child whereas elves..."

"Hold up," Regina cut in. "Fourteen months? It only took nine months in our old world."

"Only nine months?" Khatar asked, surprise on his face.

"Wait mom," Reyna said, "Khatar, how many days does it take a human?"

"Around 280 days, why?" Khatar responded.

"That's about the same amount of time." Reyna said as she turned to Regina, "The months are shorter here."

"Oh! Okay, that's better." Regina answered.

"Ahh, I had not even considered that. Well done Reyna. As I was saying, fourteen months to have a human child. Dwarves take just over three years. And we elves take more than eight years. Now, who here is eager to spend the next eight years of your life pregnant?"

"No thank you," Alexis called out.

"That is insane," added Mira.

"And most elven women would agree with you," Khatar continued. "Many other races think that elves aren't as fertile as other races. There is some truth to that, but the bigger issue is that we just don't want to have to deal with such long pregnancies followed by a century of raising the child. But! And this is important and why you got the reaction you did last night when speaking about The Hand. Because no one wants to have kids, they are rare. And because they are rare, as a society, we feel they should be taken care of and protected."

“Okay, I get that kids are rare. But our friends are in their twenties, not twelve,” retorted Regina.

“Ahh, yes. Again, my apologies. There are so many things that are different between our cultures I keep missing some of the basics. In elven society, one is not an adult until their hundredth birthday.”

This revelation stunned the group. Finally Alexis spoke up, “But they appear to be adults. What other development is needed?”

“Physically they are certainly adults. But part of our culture is to allow children the time and space to make mistakes and to fully mature. We’ll go over this more in a later lesson.”

"Well, if your society feels that kids are to protected then your society failed our friends," Eric replied in a serious tone.