Tales of Ayre

They were heading into the last month of winter. The winds and snow were letting up. And Evaliena had Jace making the crust for pies. How the yellow vixen did this without getting bits and pieces of stuff on her fur covered hand, he would never know. Maybe she was using spellcraft or glamour to alter her fur? Jace wondered a little. He thought about attempting to change his appearance, but he’s afraid of ‘breaking’ whatever that means.

“Is it normal for bits of fur to be in the dough?” Jace said loud as he kneaded the thickening blob of butter, water and flour.

“I don’t see any in yours yet,” Evaliena pointed out. She was kneading her dough with expert precision. Turning it into rounded blobs, to put onto a wooden tray.

Jace scoffed. He was worried that bits and pieces of his shedding would enter and ruin the dough. But he guessed the fuzz on his fingers and back of his hands were short and tough enough. “What are we going to fill these pies with?”

“Well, I have some nice fruit mince, apricot and fig jams to use up before winter ends.” Evaliena puffed as she kept kneading.

“You know, you could just use your spells.” Jace gazed up at the yellow vixen’s head.

“What fun is that? I do a lot of things the hard way because it satisfies me. It keeps my mind occupied…”

Jace shrugged, having to knead and roll his dough into a single smooth mass to be rolled out lest it turned out tight. The flour they had used wasn’t as fine as he knew and a hue darker too, despite being declared fine flour. “Evaliena, what is a milestone when it comes to age?” He posed the question.

“Question for a question. How do you celebrate your age?” Evaliena asked back.

Jace grumbled and rolled his eyes. He grabbed another batch of dough and started kneading. “We celebrate our birthdays once every year. Usually being showered with toys and other gifts as children.”

“Sounds wasteful.” The vixen replied as she finished the last lot of dough. “Milestones; a child’s first milestone is passed at five winters.”

“Is there a point to that?” Jace raised an eyebrow.

“Well, despite advances in medicine, a lot of children don’t make it to the age of five.” Evaliena explained. Jace could think of several reasons. The way he’s been living wasn’t exactly sanitary, only getting a bath once a week. Evaliena continued on. “The second milestone happens around eleven to thirteen winters. Just about around the time when kits started to think differently about others. Puberty, just a wonderful time.” She clapped her dusty hands in a way only a mother could. “Then around winter fifteen to seventeen winters. They hit their third milestone. Finally, all grown up.”

“Anymore milestones after that?” Jace asked. He wondered if they ever got any presents?

“Oh, the last celebrated milestone is twenty. It’s considered unlucky to achieve without finding a mate.” Evaliena put her hands on her hips and looked up at the ceiling. “After that, you count your own years and usually celebrate every five winters.”

“You hit your fourth milestone without a partner?” Jace tilted his head sly, looking at her. Evaliena cracked a smile.

“My mother and father were not pleased at all. Not that I was around to hear about it, being with my mentor so far away from the clan.” She reminisced. Evaliena normally didn’t talk about her past and didn’t enjoy talking about her past.

Jace didn’t poke any further and switched to a different angle. “Did you get any gifts? Or give any gifts?”

Evaliena looked at Jace and gestured to his wrist with the hemp bracelet. “For their first, Kits usually get a bracelet or a pendant, their first dagger and maybe a sweet roll.”

“Beacons to keep track of them?” Jace questioned. He looked and fumbled with the bracelet. “Why not before?...” Then he realised such a young child would never be away from their parents. And realised what the second milestone was. “You’re not going to tell me what I get for my second milestone?” Jace stared at Evaliena.

“You’re not old enough yet.” She tapped Jace on the nose, causing him to sneeze. He rubbed his nose with his eyes closed. Now he couldn’t work with the dough anymore. “Just in time to let these rest a bit.” Evaliena suddenly looked down through the floor. “Oh, they’ve arrived.”

Jace was confused. Who had arrived? Jace didn’t remember that anyone was coming today. More residents? There were already a few others around the hermitage that lived outside the keep Jace didn’t interact with. He heard the heavy door of the keep swing open swing open and heard two feminine voices chat. He didn’t recognise the voices. And they were climbing up the stairs and getting closer.

“Hello my girls!” Evaliena called out. As the two hooded figures crested the stairwell.

There were warm greetings and hugs from the pair of visiting vixens. Evaliena chatted with them as they did, about their families and how well life was treating them. All rather mundane stuff. And Jace felt rather uncomfortable being picked up by one of them than being interrogated about his circumstance. They weren’t blood related. Jace could smell the difference between her and them. But they did smell comforting and their touch was gentle and caring. They stood roughly round the same height as Evaliena, if slightly shorter.

They both used to be apprentices in Evaliena. Jace wondered how old they were. However, it was probably for the best that he didn't ask. Evaliena may be okay with being blunt, but he did know if these two were.

Lilac was a marble furred Reynard. Her fur was a set of gradients of black to white with a black mane down her neck. Vera was a fire orange similar to Burr along with a brown mane down her neck and was the heavier and shorter than the two. They both had dark hazel eyes that glowed slightly. Similarly to how Evaliena’s sapphire blues glowed. And neither had quite the same voluptuous body… Jace kept his eyes covered and laid on the floor as the three chatted. Apart from the study grey cloaks they still wore, they only had shawls over their shoulders and no winter coat!

Why! This was torture for Jace. Why were they here?!

“Evaliena. You weren’t kidding when you said he’s shy,” Vera commented after taking a sip of a floral smelling tea. Some kind of force dragged Jace’s body across the wooden floor over to the Vixen’s thigh. She started stroking the side of his head like he was some kind of pet. It was all he could do to not freak out. He thought he was an embarrassment to Evaliena, who sheltered him for the past season.

“Not very talkative, either.” Lilac spoke bemused at Jace. “He’s struggling to remain calm, too.” That hurt Jace’s pride. The conversation moved on. “So, is the ritual ready?” That caused Jace’s head to shift up slightly and his ears to turn. “Will anyone else be joining us?”

Evaliena spoke with a hush. “Just us four. This will be a delicate process, which is why I called the both of you.”

“Yeah, waking up a wildling isn’t a straightforward task, especially one this old.” Vera spoke softly, as she continued to rub Jace’s cheek. This sounded both concerning and annoying. He wasn’t wild… he, however, kept his quiet as the three talked.

Evaliena took a sip of her tea. “We’ll manage… Well, drink up, we’re going to have a long day.” She declared. What kind of long day?

They led him down into the cellar, into the keep’s basement. Jace had never had to go down here in his time being here. He was either asked to go upstairs to retrieve the furnishing or the ground floor to go into the stores. He followed closely behind Evaliena, with her two students following behind them. The lighting down here in the musty darkness was worse, the spacing between the glowing crystals like those in the upper floor being spaced much further apart, floating dutifully next to their cradles.

Each step echoed across the cold stone floors. The walls down here were thick and stout, much thicker than he thought they would need to partition the individual rooms. One door looked heavily guarded with cross bars. The intention of keeping whatever was inside, inside that room. Jace wanted to look closer, but the two vixens behind him pushed him forward to follow Evaliena.

Jace had put the pieces together during the short brunch earlier that this whole occasion was to awaken his power, he hoped. He was afraid and excited all at once. He couldn’t keep that errant tail of his from wagging too much. Much to the snickers of the two behind him. The yellow vixen pushed open a door at the end of the hall as they were walking down. The metal braced wooden door creaked loudly, and the air filled with the thick scent of incense, a crude mixture of spice, resin and wooden notes.

The Reynards went inside. Pushing Jace along, he saw a swallow trench ringing on the dirt floor in the circular room. Jace cracked a small joke. “Are you intending to sacrifice me?”

Lilac answered in a mocking, indifferent tone as she stood in a specific spot in the room. “You sure you want to waste the effort of awakening this little one?” “I’m sure his vis would make some excellent charms, Evaliena.”

The warmth drained from Jace’s cheeks and he felt a tightness in his chest. “Don’t make such jests, Lilac.” Evaliena scolded softly. She took another specific position, along with Vera. Lilac laughed quietly. Jace looked around, the three stood around Jace in a three pointed formation. “Jace, would you kindly stand in the middle?” he cautiously stepped across into the middle between the three vixens, who had hung their cloaks up behind them. Each wearing is a decorated and dyed shawl underneath.

“This, all a bit too nerve racking.” Jace kept his eyes on the floor to not look at any of them in particular.

“Most pups would be excited, really.” Vera commented. “To join in the craft of their parents and ancestors. Mine certainly were.”

“But you’re a wildling, not of the clans or the towns.” Lilac added flatly. “Past the age we normally induct young ones.”

“Jace.” Evaliena called. Jace’s ears turned to Evaliena’s voice to show he was listening. “If you have any hesitations, any misgivings or regrets. Speak them now, as once the ritual starts, there is no turning back and any hope of a ‘normal’ life will disappear.” Evaliena spoke with a calm, practised formality.

Jace had plenty of hesitations. What if the process went wrong? Cedar said he had no hope of returning home… But the ability to wield magic was alluring and the idea of exploring the world even more so. “I don’t have any.” Jace kept his back straight. The anxiety was building within him. He knew Evaliena was keeping specifics from him, but he had to trust her, trust the process.

“Prepare yourself.” Evaliena said. Jace could hear the subtle movement of fur and the movement of arms in the corners of his eyes. “For you accept the gift of a tradition tens of thousands of years old. That roamed the snow-capped ranges of Eweron, ran the plains of Thermista and sailed across the Indigo seas of Ayre.”

An intricate circle lit around Jace, criss-crossed with a lattice. Jace felt his feet become pinned in place, his form kept upright by an unseen force. He looked at Evaliena. Her face was stern. Her arms and hands held wide apart before her, pointed at the edges of the circle. Eyes shadowed save for some blue glowing light. The air stirred and whirled around the room in a loud whistle, causing the cloaks and the objects along the walls to flap and wave.

Evaliena’s form flickered, as if the glamour was being peeled away. Jace swore he saw golden hued fur and more than one tail behind the vixen. A light shone from below Jace. He looked down. Whatever energy the three were channelling had taken physical form and was slogging its way up Jace’s digitigrade legs like a creeping vine in pulsating bursts.

He couldn’t move. His feet, even his toes, were stuck to the ground. He looked around. None of the surrounding vixens were concerned at all. The vines of light crept up past his hips, past his stomach.

Then there was pain. Unbelievable. Mind shattering. Pain!

Jace didn’t have time to scream. All he could do was grit his teeth and close his eyes as the end came for him. But time seemed to stretch. Information assailed his mind. So many images flickered across his consciousness, like moving oil paintings. He saw an immense cloaked figure with a face-like mask. With fourteen more figures incomparably smaller on either side of them. They ran into stars, becoming constellations. He saw the creation of the world he was on, from a simple piece of rock to a vibrant green scale. A single immense white tree as stout and as wide as reaching an oak. He saw the Therians dropping as leaves.

He saw visitors of both tall and small. Darkness, that descended onto the world in large black shapes. Seeing through those people’s eyes, witnessing the event. The horrors’ the snakes put the Therians through. Jace wanted to throw up, he wanted to look away, he was forced to keep watching the despoiling of a species. There was more. The dawn came, with scars left on full display. Jace couldn’t take it. His spirit fought back with all he could! A fight between the creeping light and his own body, his own soul!

Then the ordeal was over.

Jace hesitantly opened his watering eyes. It was too bright. The world was a whirl of colour, but there was a single blinding light in front of Jace. He took a step forward and collapsed to the floor as his legs gave up, hurling up rainbow-like fluid against the smouldering lines of the ritual circle. That fluid was evaporating rapidly into motes of light. His ears rang loudly. Everything was numb. All an overwhelming sea of sensation and weird colour.

Everything went dark.

Jace didn’t know how long he was out. All he felt was a pounding headache and his head against something soft and warm. A calming scent, not unlike a flower bed in full bloom, filled his nose. The soft song of a simple lullaby tingling his ears. The careful stroke of a gentle hand against the side of his back. He could hear the familiar crackle of the warm hearth. The whispered chatter of others echoing around the donut shaped room.

Every part of his being ached. He cracked his eyes slightly, then closed them immediately. It was still a whirl of colour and bright lights. The lullaby stopped along with a light shift in posture. Jace guessed where he was laying, but didn’t care.

“Stay rested, Jace.” Evaliena whispered with motherly caution. “You were out for a while, but you survived the ordeal… I have to teach you the first skill of a mage, controlling your senses. Otherwise, you won’t be able to look at anyone. Or look yourself in the mirror, either.”

The first oddity he noticed was his name didn’t sit quite right anymore… not quite his… He pushed that feeling down and listened… to his guardian? Mentor? Foster mother? His head still ached and so his mind fuzzed.

“Focus on your eyes… Can you picture the swirling manas?” The yellow vixen started. As much as he could currently, Jace imagined the swirl of energy congregating around his eyes. It was easier than he thought it would be. “Imagine staunching the flow gradually, like closing a sluice gate.” Jace followed the instruction, imagining the flow slowing to a trickle around his eyes. It was simple, easy. He felt the slight jerk of something like a muscle. Jace felt the movement of a reassuring nod.

He hazarded a look at his surroundings. He slowly opened his eyes so they could adjust the flickering warmth of the hearth and the soft glows of the lighting crystals. The scene slowly formed into his view.

“Silver.” Cedar commented. Jace groggily turned his ears in the direction of the voice.

“Not a common hue, isn’t it?” One of the female Reynards spoke. Jace couldn’t figure out who it was through the fog across his mind. Silver hue of what?

He could also tell that there were more people in the room, like most of the hermitage was there. Both in the corner of his shaded vision and past what he couldn’t see, familiar and unfamiliar scents. Not that he could see past Evaliena’s breast, as she had him nestled in a close embrace.

Everything was more saturated. Most things in Jace’s vision became layered in extra neon vibrant oil paint. Evaliena’s form, plastered in a very faint yellow gold hue. The fire of the hearth had strange reds and oranges flecking off of it. What he could see of his own body was an eerie white glow that stretched in vines across himself.

Evaliena shifted and grabbed a wooden cup that was handed to her and brought it close to Jace’s muzzle. It seemed to haze and slosh with a green-blue scale. “What is it?” Jace weakly spoke with a parched mouth.

“It’s just water.” with a hushed tone, Evaliena urged Jace to open his mouth. He sipped the refreshing cool water. It wasn’t the same as the slightly brackish stuff he had to drink for the past season. “Do you think you can stand?” Jace shook his head wearily. Whatever he has been through, it certainly made his joints stiff. What brief sensation he could feel, felt the characteristic pressure of many presences looking directly at him. The room broke out back into the whispers of many voices and the creak of Cedar’s chair as it rocked.

“Why so many?” Jace muttered. Evaliena only gave an understanding shrug in return. Jace’s nose tingled with the smell of a stew brewing.

Jace felt the movement of a smile. “If you’re so weak, would you mind?” Evaliena tilted regarding the meaty stew that was bubbling away in the corner of the hearth’s flame.

“You might as well give him milk if you’re going to fawn over him so much.” Cedar added seriously. Jace had to fold his ears back as the cacophony of voices admonished the chuckling old fox. And a few barely constrained crude laughs from others. Jace could feel Evaliena roll her eyes. His cheek flushed with implication.

Amid the rowdiness, Evaliena spoke to Jace quietly once more. “There’s a waxing moon. Once you’re strong enough, we’re going running.”

Jace managed to get a bowl of the hearty stew down into his stomach. Filling his body with its savoury warmth. There were other pots of stew around the living area, all heated with a small orange cluster of crystals each. Jace could perceive the energies emanating from both the broth and the crystal. The crackling crystal gave off colours of warmth while the bubbling, steaming broth gave off tasteful ones? Jace couldn’t quite parse what he was feeling or seeing.

He was sitting in a semicircle with Evaliena and her two students. His feeling of embarrassment at seeing them in just their furs and shawls melted away, replaced with comfort… Safety… Connection? Normalcy?

“What do you think, little brother?” Vera cordially spoke with a wooden bowl resting on the bend of one of her crossed legs. “Being able to finally see past the veil?”

“Little… brother?” Jace gave Vera a questioning look.

“You’re part of a mage family now, Jace.” Lilac added while Evaliena reclined to look at the ceiling in thought. Jace’s name continued to no longer fit somehow. He could feel it. “We’re your sisters in the Arcane now. Apart from Evaliena, of course, who’s the master of our branch. She gets a bit clingy, though.”

As if to avoid explaining clingy. “I think it’s time we head outside.” Evaliena declared, putting an empty bowl aside. She rose up from the rug covered floor next to the hearth. “Anyone care to join us?”

With that simple line, everyone else got up from their chairs and cushions as well. They proceeded down stairs. Leaving Jace alone with Evaliena.

“Where is everyone going?”

“You’re going to enjoy this,” Evaliena smirked, giving Jace a light pat on the head. “Use your glamour and follow.”

“Wait, I’m to glamour myself now?!” yelped with hesitation and mild excitement.

Evaliena continued to the flight of stairs that headed down. She took off her shawl, putting the embroidered thing into the mess of silvery lines that was above her right hand. “To explain the custom would remove the wonder.” Then she jumped down the stairs, her body smoothly transitioning into her four-legged form. Disappearing through the opening in the floor.

The movements of getting out of his poncho and kilt felt more normal now, more natural. He dropped onto his hand as his body shifted to his four-legged form and sauntered out down the stairs. The keep’s large wooden and iron bounced door to the outside, left opened. He went outside, standing at the door’s landing. He saw nearly two dozen pairs of eyes all staring at him. All large foxes. Not foxes, but the four-legged forms of everyone, each with faintly glowing eyes with reflections of a full moon in them. He saw painted energies emanating from each one, each a different hue of something…

Evaliena cocked her head as if to signal Jace to come down. “Let’s go!”

Cedar’s silvery form led the group out of the courtyard as a courtesy. Jace galloped over to Evaliena’s flank while Vera and Lilac took up either side of them. Up the path of the mountainside. Jace didn’t feel any exhaustion as he ran, as if the world was giving him the energy to keep pace with everyone else in the skulk.

“You’re no longer a Jace Carr, are you?” Evaliena panted as they climbed and climbed along the mountain path.

“No!” Jace answered honestly.

“Then what is it, little brother?” Vera asked.

“What name did our ancestors gift you?” Lilac goaded.

“Shout it out loud. Shout it clear so the stars and the moons can hear when we reach the clearing.” Evaliena with august enthusiasm. The moons, one smaller and one larger. One yellow and one pale blue. The largest in a full wax. The skulk of Reynards kept climbing at a jogging pace.

Soon the vanguard of the group crested near a clearing someway up the mountainside. Jace ran ahead of Evaliena, with joy swelling in his heart. Jace Ashwood! He yelled as he jumped over the ridge in full view of the two moons.

It felt right. He sat on his haunches looking up at the constellations and the moons. Evaliena came up beside and sat silently with him. Her tail curled slightly around the back of Jace.

One by one, set by set, The Reynard skulk howled softly to the night sky. And Jace was carried with them.