Night of Endless Portals

Tia and I sat next to each other at a short table. This particular dining room lacked the ubiquitous floral and vine-carved pattern of most of the rooms. Instead, the floors and walls were made from clear crystal and provided a view of the landscape below. We flew at an incredible height across the land. Tiny bits of farmland quilted the countryside with elaborate patterns of urban centers splotched intermittently throughout.

Before the collapse, I’d had bad vertigo. But now I sat over a massive vista and looked on with awe. In a way, the sizes were too fantastic for me, the distances involved impossible. In another way, my sense of vertigo might have just been subsumed beneath other incredible revelations in the last few weeks.

Yierie sat across from me. Aside from the sleeping elf in Tia’s room, Yierie was the only elf I’d met since our capture.

I had questions for our hostess, so many questions. But I was also starving and the smell of the first non-canned meal I’d had in days pushed all of those questions out of mind.

Mango, oranges, and various other fruits lay across our plate, arranged by the hand of a master artist. They’d been thinly sliced, steamed in some cases, or drizzled with a compote of different herbs and fruits. The carved tomatoes dipped in ginger spiced honey blew my mind. I ate an entire platter of them before I realized I was supposed to pass the platter on to Tia.

Yierie never corrected me, instead she silently rose and had a new platter of the same brought back into the dining room for us. Neither Tia nor I spoke while we filled our bellies.

I sat back, sated and almost in pain from overeating while Tia continued to pop morsels into her mouth, generally covering her cheeks and lips with syrup or sauce.

“You look as though you enjoyed the meal. I hope that was the case?” Yierie leaned forward and motioned to the empty platters. All of her gestures were broad and sweeping, her hand looping out from her shoulder or elbow like she traced circles in the air.

“I did,” I looked over at Tia, who grinned with multi-colored seeds in her teeth as she nodded. “We enjoyed it. Thank you.”

“It was my pleasure.” Yierie nodded and swept out with her hand again. “You hold your mouth as if block back questions. Please, feel free to ask.”

“Where are the rest of my companions?” I hated to admit it, but Tia came first for me. “I had three other people with me…”

The edge of Yierie’s mouth twitched. “I assume you mean your friend who was missing an arm and the Dark Summoner?” those last two words brought out Yierie’s obvious disgust. She turned her mouth down into a frown. I would not have been surprised if she’d stuck her tongue out.

“Alaric and Kain, yes…” Before I could mention Malia, Yierie sucked in a breath.

“Please do not speak the summoner’s name aboard the Crystal Orchid. To give such a one as little as the mist of life is to endanger every soul on our ship.” Yierie said “please,” but her tone offered a hint of threat.

“Sorry. What about Alaric?”

“He is in our infirmary. I am sorry, but it had been too long since he lost his arm and we do not possess the missing limb, so we cannot regenerate him…”

“Oh, you can do that?” I leaned forward and Yierie’s eyes twinkled with mirth.

“Indeed, you will not find one among the People missing so much as an eyebrow.” She tapped her own eyebrow and I felt as though I were missing a joke. Yierie leaned back into her chair and speared a single piece of a green leafy vegetable from the table. She munched it with obvious relish, closing her eyes as she chewed and swaying side to side as she ate.

When she’d swallowed what she ate, I said, “is there another way you can help Alaric?”

Yierie opened her eyes and said, “Of course. We permit an enclave of Metalsmiths aboard our vessel. They have already begun fashioning a spare arm for your friend.”

“Really, you can do that?”

Yierie grinned. “As I said, none of our people are missing any parts. We would find his presence here, off-putting.”

“Wow, this is all… incredible. Do we owe you something for all of this?” I braced myself for the shoe to drop.

“You do not, though we would like to interview you about your priesthood and various abilities. And of course, anyone who wishes to serve aboard the Crystal Orchid is permitted to do so. Encouraged, really.”

“Serve?”

“Unless our artisans were highly mistaken, you posses the ability to heal, yes?” Yierie reclined in her chair, but narrowed her eyes as if testing my response.

“Yeah, I mean I’m not great at it.”

“We would teach you to be great, if you so desired. Healers are rare, even among the People, and we can always use another. If you are interested, I would be happy to arrange lessons after dinner.”

“What about Tia?” I put my hand on her shoulder, pulling her to me and accepting the risk of getting her food mess all over.

“We would never harm a child. And she possesses a magical gift of her own. Either she could accompany you or we could arrange classes to draw out her power. The choice would be your own.”

“Okay… can we think about it?”

“Naturally. There is no obligation here. At some point, the elders would like to speak to you and ask questions, but that can wait until you are ready.” Yierie rolled her hand as if pulling in a line of yarn. “Or you can put them off forever for all I care. Not that I would admit such before them.” She tapped the corner of her mouth again and I wondered at the meaning of the gesture.

I waited a few seconds for Yierie to say something else. When I was sure she’d finished, I turned to Tia. “What do you think, kiddo? Want to go to classes, come with me, or bum around here?”

“I want to be where you are!” Tia pushed herself back into her seat and pointed to her chest. “I go where Harriet goes!” At least she didn’t jump up and threaten Yierie.

The elf woman escorted us back to the first room where I woke up. When she hovered her hand over the outside of the door, it melted away to the frame.

“We can just stay here? As long as we want?” I eyed the luxurious furnishings of the room with some skepticism.

“Of course. This is my own room. We would share until you chose to move to another.”

“Wow, thank you!”

“You are welcome.” Yierie stood at her doorway and hesitated. “Earlier, you mentioned a third missing companion. Was there another who should have been with you?”

Malia. I didn’t say her name. “Oh no, I was thinking of my sister. Sorry.”

Yierie glanced at Tia, who’d left my side to careen about the room. “Of course. I have a few duties to attend to, do you mind staying here for the evening. I will return with food and may take our meals in the Floating Din if you so desire.”

“Sure, thanks again!”

Yierie performed the finger-to-chin gesture again, sweeping her hand out almost to the doorframe. “You are welcome. Remain safe, Harriet Yeshe.”

“I like her!” Tia waited until the door had melted closed before she shouted. “She’s pretty and fed me delicious food!”

“Sounds like we know your weakness now, squirt.”

“You mean that I’m short?”

I covered my face in my hands and laughed at Tia. I fell back to the bed where I awoken and found it incredibly comfortable. Until I laid down, I hadn’t felt especially tired. But the moment my head hit the mattress, I yawned and stretched out.

“Why didn’t you tell the elf lady about Malia?”

Why indeed. I had no answer for Tia. On one hand, I might have been worried about the elves and how they would treat Malia on account of being a Djinn. On the other hand, I didn’t want to mention the woman I was crushing on before the obviously flirtatious elf Yierie. “I’m not sure we need to tell the elves absolutely everything about us.”

“Why not?”

“You heard what Yierie said about…” I lowered my voice, “Kain. She called him a Dark Summoner. What if they’d want to hurt Malia?”

“They’re helping Alaric and us, though, right?” Tia scooted up on her knees and made too good of an interrogator for my tastes.

“Well, yes. But that doesn’t mean they’re on our side.” They were certainly on their own side. Sure, they fought a giant and its hoard of imps off, but that might be part of their daily business. And the idea of serving the elves chaffed with me. It wasn’t that I was going to churlishly abuse their generosity. The way Yierie described “service” invoked my suspicions, probably more than was warranted.

Tia and I drifted off for an hour and I started awake at a strange feeling in my inner ear. I needed a second to identify the feeling before I realized our ship was descending. The tilt of the vessel was incredibly gentle. I’d never been aboard an airplane in my life, so I didn’t know if they felt like this or if the Crystal Orchid was more or less extreme.

Where I woke up in an instant, Tia didn’t stir from her place at my side. She moaned and batted at something in front of her with a sweet mumble. Rather than wake her up, I slipped my hand out from behind her and rose from the bed on my own.

Yierie’s room had a small desk, a trunk, a dresser and a mirror. All of the furnishings could have grown from the surrounding walls. They shared an identical wood carved pattern that merged the furniture with the walls. I was’t crass enough to go rooting through Yierie’s possessions, so I waited patiently for her to return. Without a working phone, paper, or even a stick with which to amuse myself, I grew bored incredibly quickly. I tried snuggling next to Tia and sleeping. That failed after twenty minutes of restlessness.

When the silver door finally opened again, I leapt toward it. “Oh thank the gods!”

Yierie’s eyes bulged and she rushed into the room. “Is something wrong? Are you safe?” Her hand went to a small pouch at her side automatically, but she didn’t pull anything out of it.

A little silver cart waited behind Yierie in the hallway, held in place by the shortest elf I’d seen so far. His mouth dropped open at the sight of me and he tried to cower behind the cart. “Everything’s fine.” I addressed Yierie as much as the boy with his cart.

She rushed back to the doorway. “What vexed you when I entered?” Her wide-eyed expression never faded as she questioned me.

“Nothing, honest. I was just getting bored.”

Tia rose in that moment, rubbing her eyes. “What’s all of the shouting about?”

Yierie covered her mouth and made the hacking sound again. Maybe laughter gave elves hairballs. The thought sent me into giggles too.

Dinner was an even more elaborate spread of fruits and veggies. While the hardest cooked thing during lunch had been steamed, this time Yierie presented Tia and me with grilled asparagus in cream stew, purple fried broccolis, riced and baked cauliflower, and fried and minced dumplings made from assorted veggies. Those latter were the savory variety. A sweet variety accompanied them with the interior made from fruits and spicy chilis that warmed my chest as I swallowed.

“Would you care for some wine?” Yierie presented a crystal decanter of golden liquid that smelled of berries and alcohol from across the table.

After the experience with Jeremy, I might be off booze for life, taboo or no. “I’m good. Water’s enough for both of us.”

“Of course.” Those two words might have been Yierie’s favorites. She poured herself a glass of wine and left the decanter on the table as a silent offering. “You said you were bored earlier. Is there anything I could do to alleviate that boredom?”

The first thing to spring to mind would not be appropriate to say in front of Tia. I was still very much attracted to Malia, but she’d shown little interest in me. And I didn’t know what happened to her. Yierie the elf was downright inviting compared to Malia. Plus she took every possible opportunity to press herself against me and make suggestive comments. I shook my head and said, “I think so, you’d mentioned letting us learn stuff before. Like what?”

Yierie’s smile spread up to her pointed ears. “We offer lessons in archery, swordcraft, magic and more here. Does your sister know how to read and write?”

“I do! I know how to spell my name and a whole bunch of words!” Tia spoke with her mouth full and managed to spray a bit of food over her lap. She’d need a bath and laundry service after dinner. When that particular thought occurred to me, I remembered that she’d made a huge mess at lunch too, but I didn’t recall her leaving stains all over Yierie’s bed. Huh.

Yierie leaned toward Tia across the table and said, “That is quite impressive for a human your age. Would you like to learn to speak Elven?”

“Oh, wow, yes! Please!” Tia stood and almost tipped her chair backwards.

The display was met with more hacking laughter from Yierie. “Then I will be sure to arrange for lessons as soon as possible.” She turned to me. “What about you, Harriet?”

A question sprang to my lips, but for a change I restrained from blurting it out. Instead I thought about it and reformed it before I spoke. “I would like to learn magic. And maybe a little about your elven priests, if you have any.”

“That is easy to do for both of you. And your desires dovetail nicely as you would both need to learn Elven before we could proceed with further lessons anyway.”

I pointed at Yierie, “You know, I’ve been meaning to ask about that. How is it that we can understand each other now?”

Yierie took my hand and pointed to her own. “That is simple. This morning when you woke, I cast a spell of the Glossolalia upon myself. Once you took my hand I was able to fully communicate with you. I should sound like a native of your region, though I should also sound unusually formal.”

“That’s exactly right!” Tia spoke up. “You sound like our grandpa when he gets really mad at someone.”

“I’m not sure if that is a good thing or a bad one. But thank you?” Yierie tilted her head and covered her mouth as if the giggles might start any moment.

“Sure!”

I patted Tia on the head. “When can we start?” The idea of spending another several hours alone in Yierie’s room with nothing better to do terrified me and set my teeth on edge.

“We could start the moment you finish dinner.”

Language classes reminded me of grade school. A kindly old elf with wizened features and a shock of white hair taught the classes. No one took a second look at the pair of humans sitting in the lessons with the rest. Most of the others in the class looked considerably younger than me, around Tia’s age.

Yierie left once she introduced Tia and me to the teacher, Madame Renrara. Before I sat, the older elf took me aside and said, “What is your age, dearie?” She even said “dearie,” for real.

“I’m nineteen…” Before I could ask why, the old elf turned back to a pale white table in front of the class. With a few taps on the surface, a hologram rose with a series of sigils suspended in the air next to a man with his arms outstretched in the T-pose.

“Ah, yes. That is too old for our purposes.” I opened my mouth to protest and the elf muttered a quick string of words as me. A sparkling cone of dust and light struck my face and made me sneeze.

“What was that?”

“Oh nothing. It will merely aid in your retention of the materials. Once you reach a certain age, learning a new language becomes prohibitively difficult. Not so with that spell.” She pointed to one of the white wooden desks with the other students. “Now if you would take your seat, we may begin.”

I sat down and found myself fidgeting. Only at the last did I realize the old elf had been speaking English the whole time. Her’s lacked any discernible accent, though if pressed, I might have described it as largely British with a mix of Americanized sounds.

Class sped by and though I was restless during the whole thing, Madame Renrara knew how to maintain attention in humans by varying the lessons and changing the activities every few minutes. By the end of class, I was tired from the density of learning I’d been subject to.

Tia yawned too and slogged her way to the door.

Madame Renrara intercepted us on the way out. “Excellent work today you two. Here is a tab with your assignments for tonight.” I chuckled at the thought that though my college had been obliterated, I was now re-enrolled in some kind of magical school. As far as I was concerned, this was a completely fair trade.

Yierie greeted us at the door and led us back to her room. The second pass through the hallways had my head swiveling as I tried to take in every single detail of the surroundings. Valleys between the vines and leaves caught and held my attention as we passed them. Several times, Yierie had to tap me on the arm and remind me to continue down the hallway. I acted the way films depicted stoned people. Though she had to keep redirecting my attention, Yierie never lost patience with me.

When we reached her room, I was too keyed up for sleep. “Yierie, let’s do something fun!”

Beside me, Tia all but vibrated a whole in the floor in her excitement. “Yeah! Something fun Yierie! Something fun!”

The elf performed a decidedly human gestured when she opened her mouth several times and shut it. After a few of those cute little gestures, the urge to lean forward and kiss her rose in me as a twin to the curiosity coursing through my mind. I rose up on the tips of my toes and leaned toward Yierie when she said, “you mentioned your cousin Alaric, I can take you to him and to see the runeforges. Does that sound fun?”

Momentarily stunned at the way I’d drifted toward Yierie, I blinked and her and did not speak right away. Tia frowned and said, “no, that sounds boring.”

I said, “I wouldn’t mind seeing them.”

Tia stuck out her tongue, but then tilted her head in an elaborate clownish shrug. “Fine. Whatever.”

Yierie looked between us and I said, “runeforges it is!” Before we’d managed to leave the room, Tia had started to yawn and her eyes narrowed with the need to sleep. “You look like you’re about to pass out, squirt.” Tia yawned again as I said it, trying to manage a “no” through her gaping maw and failing. I scooped her up into my arms and said, “why don’t we carry you off to bed first. That way you’ll be fresh and ready in the morning? Besides, you don’t really want to go with us, right?”

She didn’t squirm or protest my suggestion. Instead, she laid her head on my shoulder, blinked hr eyes once, and passed out. “Wow, she’s usually way more lively.”

“Most likely this is a side effect of Mistress Renrara’s teachings.” Yierie pointed from Tia back to me. “For the young, her lessons can be straining at first. We tend to sleep a good deal for the first few weeks. For the old, the magic she uses to enhance retention can be disruptive.”

“I’d kind of noticed the last thing, huh.” The fact that the strange elf had messed with my mind hadn’t escaped me. But I hadn’t faced it directly until Yierie mentioned it, as if the magic itself directed my mind outward rather than inward. In line with that train of thought, I realized that Yierie had not been present when Renrara ensorcelled me. “Wait, how do you know that?”

Yierie covered her mouth, but didn’t laugh. “I too have gone to the Mistress of Learning as an adult. Her methods are effective, there is no doubt. But at the same time, they leave a mark on their targets.” I started to ask Yierie if that was a bad thing, but she took my arm in the crook of her own and said, “now I believe we were on our way to visit the runeforges.’

With that, my attention had been properly redirected. We dropped Tia off in Yierie’s sister’s room and before we shut the door, I’d forgotten why I’d been momentarily concerned about elven magic influencing my mind. Before we left the vine-carved halls, I’d forgotten that I had been concerned in the first place. I managed to fully examine those halls by then and determined that not one leaf or vine arrangement repeated themselves. Almost as if the elves had grown their ship and sealed it with resin once it matured.