Sword and Sorcery
Chapter 12

by D.Fire
phongb9@idt.net

	"Do you know my daughter, then?" Keili asked the
stranger before her.  "Are you here to take her away?" 
The woman had feared the stranger's initial reaction since
Uerris had seemingly attacked without provocation last
night.  Although her daughter had babbled about the great
sorceress that scared her witless as Uerris had lain
crying in her arms, her understanding of the whole matter
was somewhat confused.  Her daughter had not been very
coherent.

	Keili was pleasantly relieved as Raeni, as the
stranger had named herself, swept her daughter in the
red-head's embrace.  She had feared the worst and was
ready to plead with Raeni to be lenient, but Keili sighed
in relief, instead, finding that the situation fared much
better than she expected.

	The sorceress that stood before Keili seemed to be
much better after a night's rest.  Raeni had not looked
too good after her son had brought her to the house last
night.  She had been surprised when Errin came home
bearing a young girl in his arms.  The girl was very
beautiful, but she hadn't known that such beauty carried
an explosive personality and talent.  To her at the time,
Raeni had been a lovely but fragile girl who had the
misfortune to fall into a sand boggle's pit.

	Raeni turned toward Keili after releasing the older
woman's daughter.  "Madam, I know this sounds fantastic,
but Uerris here has known me for at least twenty years. 
Though, she probably doesn't remember much right now." 
Seeing that Keili did not react to the seemingly
outrageous statement, she continued, "Before I explain,
can you tell me how Uerris came here?"  She glanced in the
direction of the front door.  "I know what Errin asked you
just a moment ago."  A sad expression flashed across
Raeni's face.  "I can guess from his reaction that Uerris
isn't his blood sister.  I'm sorry that he had to find out
that way."

	Deftly sidetracking the conversation, Keili replied,
"Explanations can wait until we make you comfortable in
our home.  It seems obvious that you believe Uerris is
your longtime friend.  I trust you will explain how you
could have known each other for twenty years."  The older
woman frowned slightly as she added, "Neither of you seem
older than a decade and a half."  Spreading out her arms,
she gently guided the two girls out of the kitchen into
the main room, with the panther following behind.  Seeing
the front door still open, she disengaged herself and
walked gracefully over to it.

	Keili peered outside and sighed.  "Errin will be back
when he feels better."  The woman slowly swung the door
closed, making sure that it clicked closed.  "This is a
private affair, it seems, between you and my family.  Let
us make sure we have privacy."  Turning to Raeni, she
suggested, "Please have a seat, while I make some tea." 
Feeling that the young sorceress posed no threat to either
herself or her daughter, she left the two of them alone
and entered the kitchen to prepare the offered tea.

	The two girls remaining in the main room sat down on
a fluffy couch.  They remained in silence for several
minutes as each waited for the other to speak first. 
Raeni looked at Uerris with a jovial expression on her
face while Uerris gave Raeni a suspicious gaze, although
something else seemed there as well.  Raeni finally broke
the silence first, asking, "Do you remember me at all?"

	Almost woodenly, a reply came, "No."  A silent pause
followed.  Uerris continued, "What makes you think I'm
this 'Ukyou'?"  The hidden feeling deep at the bottom of
heart surged forth unexpectedly, but she ruthlessly
reigned it in and kept her expression neutral.  It just
wouldn't do to act familiar to the stranger before her,
despite the fact that the stranger already expressed
feelings of affection.

	Raeni reacted to the question quite ...
enthusiastically.  Her grin grew wider, if such a thing
was possible, and she blurted out, "So do you remember
something!"  At Uerris' slight shake of the head and the
solemn expression on the girl's face, Raeni's excitement
fell, following the dying smile off her face.  'Wait!  I
did mention Ukyou last night, to Errin and Keili.  Did
they make the connection?'  It was obvious after a moment
of consideration.  Returning her attention back to Uerris,
she guessed in a flat voice, "Your mother or your brother
told you, right?"

	Uerris nodded slowly and watched, surprised, as
Raeni's expression became even more morose, which she had
thought impossible.  'This girl wears her feelings on her
sleeve,' Uerris realized.  In an attempt to cheer Raeni
up, she jokingly said, "Hey, you look like you lost your
best friend, or something."  She felt incredibly bad as
hurt joined the sadness in Raeni's countenance.  "Hey,
hey.  If I am this 'Ukyou', you can do something about it,
right?"  She immediately regretted her suggestion as an
implication sank in.

	Raeni's expression brightened as the smile returned
to her face.  "That's right!" Raeni cheerfully said.  "I
can use a spell to return your memory, just like ... my
old master did to me."  Her expression fell again, and
this time her shoulders also drooped.  Tears gathered in
her eyes at the mention of Hariule, and she shut them in
an attempt to stop the tears.

	Thankful that the subject had turned away from magic,
especially magic being used on herself, Uerris comforted
Raeni as best she could.  Wary of laying hands on the
sorceress, she tentatively stretched out an arm and laid
it on Raeni's shoulder.  To her surprise, Raeni shifted
closer, allowing her to embrace the grieving girl fully. 
'She trusts me,' Uerris thought, 'despite the fact that I
hurt her.'  She held the girl, neither person saying much.
The embrace just felt so right.  Without thinking, she
lowered her face down to Raeni's in anticipation of a
kiss, but a noise behind her broke her concentration,
causing her to pull back.  A slight flush creeping to
cheeks, Uerris slowly looked up to see her mother standing
in the doorway of the kitchen.  Keili looked surprised and
worried.

	"Ahem," Uerris' mother spoke, startling Raeni from
Uerris' embrace.  Keili eyed her daughter with an
expression that plainly said, 'We'll talk later, young
lady!'  Moving in front of the couch, she placed the a
tray laden with porcelain tea cups and tea pot on the
table before the couch.  The matronly woman then moved to
sit in a chair so that she faced the two girls.  Azure, at
this moment, chose to jump on the couch, neatly separating
the two already there.

	Slightly worried at her familiar's behavior, she
asked Keili, "Do you mind that Azure sits up here with
us?"  Running her hand through his fur, she added, "I
don't think he sheds."

	"That's quite all right, Dear," replied the older
woman.  Seeing that her daughter wasn't reacting to the
proximity of the large feline, she graciously asked in
return, "Azure is the name of your familiar, right?  What
an unusual beast.  I've never seen its like.  What exactly
is ... it?  He?  She?"  She seemed quite embarrassed that
she couldn't determine how to address the familiar.

	"He's a panther.  A big fuzzy cat, as you can see,"
Raeni explained with a grin, "and quite harmless." 
Without thinking, she traced the ridge of scar tissue on
the cat's shoulder, not noticing when Uerris winced at the
reminder.  "You're quite right.  He's my familiar." 
Grabbing the cat's head, she made a funny expression from
his lips and ears.  "See, he's tame," she giggled.  More
quietly, she added, "He used to be my old teacher's
familiar."  Azure pulled his head from Raeni's grasp and
haughtily looked toward the ceiling, trying best to ignore
the tormentor at his side.

	"Your old teacher."  Keili thoughtfully paused as she
delicately asked the next question.  "Since you say that
... Azure ... is now your familiar, does this mean that
...?"

	Her visage saddened, Raeni nodded her reply, "Yes. 
My old master is dead.  Someone killed him just over a
week ago."

	Tentatively, Uerris' mother said, "Someone ... killed
... him.  I'm so sorry for you!"  She sat there in silence
as if giving a prayer for the dead.  "But, what are you
doing here now?  You're not looking for his murderer are
you?!"

	"No," Raeni replied, slowly shaking her head.  "I
have no idea where I would find the killer at this point,
so I am just traveling right now."

	In a quiet voice, Keili asked, "Might I have the name
of your master?"

	"Yes.  He was Hariule the sorcerer."

	A hushed silence fell over the room as mother and
daughter sat there in shock.  Keili's eyes popped wide in
surprise.  Her daughter had a similar expression on her
face.  "What?!  Someone killed Master Hariule?  The White
Mage?" she frantically asked, horrified at the thought.

	Raeni was taken aback at the reaction of the others. 
'I didn't know Master Hariule was that well known.' 
Timidly, she asked, "You knew of him, then?"

	At this, Uerris broke into the conversation, blurting
out, "Knew of him?  Everyone of the three continents knows
of him!"  Blushing at her outburst, she looked over to her
mother in confirmation.  Even with her fear of magic, she
knew of the major mages in the land.  At her mother's nod,
she continued, "He's been a legend since the Dragon Wars!"

	Keili added, "I remember seeing Master Hariule
passing through this town when I was but a young girl,
with his familiar ... Azure!"  She made the connection in
her mind, but she recalled another fact.  "But Azure was
but the size of a normal cat then!  And he was a bright
blue, too!  I even remember playing with him!"

	<And I remember playing with you, too, Kiki.  You
were such a cute child.>  Although Azure normally didn't
bother talking to people other than his old master and
Raeni, he made an exception this time.  The thought was
broadcast into the room in general, so both Raeni and
Uerris heard it as well.

	Raeni looked startled for a moment, but then she and
Uerris broke into a laugh at the same time, albeit for
different reasons.  Raeni laughed at the irony of a
nickname matching a little witch from some animation from
her old world.  

	Uerris laughed at learning that her mother was once
known as 'Kiki'.  It seemed very funny that a
self-possessed figure such as her mother had ever been
known by such a silly-sounding name.

	Keili looked faintly offended by the two girls in
front of her, but she soon broke into a laugh of her own,
joining the others in returning cheer to the room.  After
they all laughed themselves out, she questioned the cat,
"But what happened to you, Azure.  You couldn't have grown
this much."

	<Well, you can thank Raeni here.  When Master Hariule
died, she took me as her familiar.  I reflect her inner
self,>  Azure patiently explained.

	After being reminded about Master Hariule's death,
Keili's expression turned serious.  She told Raeni, "You
must be careful about who you tell of your master's death.
I have to consult with my husband, but I think that
little piece of information, if it gets well-known, will
have major repercussions throughout the land.  My father
explained to me that Master Hariule was the Guardian of
the North.  His presence there prevented many creatures
and barbarians from the northern wastes from coming down
through the Stonemeld Bridge."  She paused in
contemplation.  "Although it may be too late.  I worry
that whoever killed him already spread word of his death."
She suggested, "You probably should not tell anybody that
you were his student.  I've heard of mages challenging
other mages to gain a name for themselves.  As a student
of one of greatest mages in the land, you'd be a prime
target."

	"Ha!  I take all comers," Raeni boasted.  "I'm not
afraid of any challengers."  She cracked her knuckles,
chuckling and adding, "No one can beat me.  I'm the best
at what I do."

	Raising one eyebrow, Keili leveled a sardonic gaze at
Raeni.  "That may be, but you don't understand, Raeni. 
Some of these mages duel to the death," Keili calmly
explained.  "Are you willing to kill another person, for
mere reputation?"

	After a moment's silence, Raeni quietly answered,
"No.  Not to the death.  I wouldn't do that without
reason."  Keili didn't seem to be a bad person, so she
would take it under advisement.

	Seeing that she made her point, Keili continued, "I
believe you, Raeni.  I believe that you knew my daughter
before she was my daughter.  And I believe that you and
she came from another world."  

	Her mother's last statement blew Uerris out of the
water, and she sat there silent in her shock while her
mouth dropped open.  She hadn't heard about being from
another world before.  When her mother had dropped the
bombshell two years ago that she had been adopted into the
family, no mention had been made about that.  This fact
was even weirder than the strange weapons that her mother
had presented to her on her fourteenth birthday.  Although
the handling of those weapons had seemed familiar to her,
she still hadn't been able to imagine their use.

	"But before you try anything on my daughter to return
her memory, please discuss it with us first," Keili
requested.  Her daughter looked at her fearfully.  The
expression of fear soon turned to an expression of
resignation as Uerris acquiesced. 

	Raeni noticed the momentary fear on Uerris'
countenance.  Turning so that she faced the girl directly,
she asked bluntly, "Are you afraid of magic, Uerris?"

	Reluctantly, Uerris replied with a solid nod.

	Raeni jumped to feet and began pacing around the room
while muttering to herself.  After two passes, she
returned to the couch and sat.  Turning to Keili, she
stated, "This is going to be a problem.  If I read it
correctly, I'm going to need her ability as a mage in the
future."

	"Read it?  Read what?"  Keili asked this, but both
mother and daughter seemed equally confused.

	Somewhat frustrated, Raeni reached to her pouch and
pulled out the tome containing the Orippa Prophecy and
brusquely placed the book on the table between them.  "I
read it in this," she said indicating the volume.  "I will
need all of the skills of the Companions, and I can tell
that Uerris has the makings of a great Earth mage."

	Keili held a startled expression on her face as she
looked frantically between the pouch and the incongruously
large book pulled from it.  Her daughter did not react,
having already seen Raeni pull things out of her little
magic pouch.  Keili pointed at the pouch with a shaking
hand and demanded, "How did you do that?!  What you did
was impossible!"

	Uerris rolled her eyes as she explained to her
mother, "Oh, come on, Momma.  Even I know about
dimensional pockets.  Old Miri taught it as one of the
first lessons."

	Giving her daughter a look that would freeze water,
Keili explained herself.  "You don't understand, Uerris. 
It's impossible to draw something that large out of
something so small.  It just wouldn't fit.  Old Miri
didn't teach you that?"

	Raeni nodded in understanding.  Clearing the tray of
its contents, she asked Keili politely, "May I?"  At the
confirming nod, she placed the tray into her dimensional
pocket seeming to shove it through the pouch.  As she
unfastened the pouch from her belt, she said, "I take it
you are familiar with how this works.  Since you know how
to summon things from a pouch such as this, please
retrieve the tray."  She handed the little bag over the
befuddled woman.

	Keili nodded as she received the offering.  She
reached into the pouch, and a look of concentration passed
over her features.  To her surprise, she was unable to
retrieve the tray.  Puzzled, she tried once again, but
nothing came to her hand.  'I'm sure I did that right,'
she thought.  The pouch remained empty.  Looking up, she
said, "I don't understand.  I've used this type of item
before, and it's never failed."

	Smiling mysteriously, Raeni commanded, "Watch."  She
placed her two hands together in front of her and slowly
moved them apart.  As her hands spread, there in between,
the tray appeared suspended in mid-air.  When its full
length finally emerged, Raeni deftly caught it before it
could clatter to the ground.  She placed the tray gently
back on the table.

	Keili was speechless.  Unlike her daughter, she
realized the significance of what Raeni just showed her. 
The pouch in her hand was nothing but a normal pouch.  She
looked at the young girl in awe, feeling that her daughter
would be in capable hands, at least in field of magic. 
The girl had just pulled the tray directly out of
subspace.  Even Miri in her prime could not pull that
little trick, back when Miri, she, and her husband had
traveled in search of adventure.  That this girl could do
it at such a young age indicated that she had made an apt
pupil for Master Hariule.

	Unused to the admiration of another, Raeni shifted
uncomfortably in her seat.  She once again pointed at the
book lying before them and said, "As I was saying before
we got sidetracked, I read about it in here."

	Shaken out of her wonder, Keili picked up the tome
and paged through it, pausing here and there to read
certain passages.  "This is the Orippa Prophecy!" she
exclaimed.  Raeni nodded at her proclamation.  "But that
means ..."  She grew pale at the thought.  Once again,
Raeni nodded.  Uerris just looked confused.

	Keili turned to her daughter and commanded, "Uerris,
you MUST go with Raeni!  If she's right, and I fear she
is, then the life of this world is at stake." 
Regretfully, she added, "And if she wants you to learn
magic, despite your aversion, you will learn it."

	Jolted by the seriousness of her mother, Uerris could
only meekly agree to Keili's demand.  She still didn't
understand what was going on, but when her mother was this
way... stopping a raging bull would be easier.

	"Aversion?" Raeni picked up on the nuance of the
word.  "So there is a choice here?"  She turned to face
Uerris and demanded, "Why?  What makes you fear magic so?"

	Keili answered for her daughter.  "Uerris had a ...
bad experience with magic.  She was very young at the
time, about ten or so."  She went into detail about that
final, failed Fall Dance, all the detail that the only
witness at the time had divulged.  She explained about Old
Miri and her unfortunate death.  During the retelling,
Uerris grew paler and paler, looking as though the girl
wanted to bolt from the room.  The tale took some time,
but Keili finally concluded, "My daughter has been leery
of magic ever since.  She has learned the healing aspect
of her talent out of necessity, but that's about as far as
she's gotten.  It was lucky that I knew healing magic and
could at least teach her that."

	Raeni's expression grew grim during the story. 
Holding Uerris' hands in her own, she faced her
once-fiancee, and looking passionately into the frightened
girl's eyes, she asked, "Uerris, I won't make you learn
magic, regardless of what the prophecy may say."  Keili
looked horrified at this.  Raeni continued, "But I ask
you, in the name of our past friendship and our future
friendship, will you let me teach you the beauty of
magic?"

	Uerris heart betrayed her when she looked into those
pleading ... lovely ... cute ... eyes.  She shook her head
trying to drive out the stray thoughts.  'Baka!  I can't
get distracted by Raeni like that.  'Baka.'  What's that?'
She considered the offer.  She considered her fear.  She
looked back into those deep blue eyes.  Dazzled, she
whispered, "Yes."

	"Yatta!"  Raeni threw her arms around Uerris once
again, embracing her friend long and hard.  "I promise
that I'll show you how beautiful magic can be once more! 
You will never fear magic again!"  Raeni laughed in
happiness.  With her arms around Uerris, Raeni did not see
the wry smile on Uerris' face.

	Keili's daughter contemplated the answer she had
given.  It was not a decision of the mind, she decided, as
the warm arms comforted her.  Her heart had led the way
this day.  She did not regret it at all.

	***

	Errin burst through the front door of the house, his
breath coming in short gasps.  Seeing the two girls
sitting on the couch embracing, he stopped short, falling
to his knees in disbelief.  'What?!  Uerris and Raeni? 
No, I must focus!  Must ... focus ...'  Unable to struggle
to his feet, Errin collapsed to the floor face-first with
his vision dancing.  He finally lost consciousness.

	When Uerris got a good look at her brother, she let
out a scream of horror.  Deep gouges covered the exposed
surfaces of Errin's body, and his clothes were scratched
and ripped in many locations.  Many of the cuts still
bled.  Tearing herself from Raeni's embrace, Uerris rushed
over to help her brother.  She cried, "What happened,
Errin?!  Who hurt you like this?!"  Seeing no response at
all, she turned him gently over and checked his pupils. 
His eyes had rolled up in the back of his head, and shock
began setting in.

	Uerris gestured to Raeni and her mother, exclaiming,
"Hurry, help me get him to the couch!"  The other two
nodded in response and came over to help her gently lift
Errin onto the soft couch. Concern showed on all three's
faces.  Uerris demanded of Raeni, "I need bandages and
lots of them.  NOW."

	Again, Raeni nodded in agreement and started
divesting herself of all medical supplies she carried,
pulling them one after another from her pocket dimension. 
She managed to pull out and assortment of bandages which
she then handed over without a word.

	Without speaking, the two went to work, stopping the
bleeding cuts and bandaging as best as they could.  Keili
hovered over the three of them with worry evident on her
face.  When they had made sure all bleeding had ceased,
Uerris indicated that the others should move back to give
her room.

	Uerris stood before her brother, her arms held before
her, her hands seemingly cupping something invisible. 
"Words to the winds, sprites of healing, come heed my
call," she intoned.  "Help heal --"  Before Uerris could
finish the incantation, Errin's hand snaked out and
clasped her arm, startling her out of her light trance. 
"What ---?!" she exclaimed, and as she looked into her
brother's eyes, she saw a pleading refusal of her help.

	Errin's voice rasped, "No!  Don't heal me, yet!" 
After a moment of disorientation, he continued, "You can't
heal me until I give you my news!"

	Uerris realized that the news must be extremely
important.  If her brother was refusing help even with the
severe wounds evident on his body, then the news was of a
life-or-death situation.  She tugged on the ends of  hair
in frustration but silently nodded her acquiescence.  'If
I heal him now, he'll be out for the next day or so,' she
judged.

	.He directed the ladies' attention to a parchment
still clutched in his hand.  Although he had lost
consciousness, he had still held onto the paper with a
death-grip.  "This is a ransom note."  He gently placed it
onto the low table in front of the couch to the side of
the tome already lying there.  Errin had managed to catch
his breath, so he continued in a pained voice, "They
caught me as I was walking in the forest and --"

	Raeni jumped in, asking, "They?  They who?"

	Hushing the young redhead, Keili gently coaxed her
son, "Tell us who attacked you."

	Errin answered, "The orcs, Mother.  I was walking in
the forest after I had ... left here in a hurry."  Pushing
aside that unpleasant memory, he stalwartly continued,
"Anyway, I was just walking in the forest.  I guess I
wasn't paying attention to my surroundings when an arrow
lodged into a tree just in front of me.  I whirled around,
but I didn't see anybody.  I was about to look up when a
net dropped on me.  The next thing I know, somebody hit me
on the back of head and knocked me out!  When I next
awoke, I was at their camp.  They had me tied up to a
stake.  They had Father, too."

	Keili looked horrified.  She knew her husband would
wander the woods for days on his normal patrol, so she had
not paid much attention when Aarun had not come back
during the past several days.  Uerris  fell to her knees
in reaction, while Keili grabbed her son, frantically
demanding, "Where is your father, now?!"

	"He's still their captive!  I was pretty banged up by
that time.  They must have dragged me all the way to their
camp.  Father did not look very well at all.  It looked
like they'd had him for a day or two already.  He was
unconscious."  Errin broke down and began to cry.  He
sobbed, "Father had bruises and cuts all over his body,
worse than I am now!  He was alive though, because I heard
him moan.  I started moving toward him, but the orcs
blocked my way!  Then a voice ordered them away."

	"Who stopped them, Errin?" Uerris asked her brother. 
"Did someone help you?"

	"No!  It was an elf.  He was wearing a dark cowl, but
I saw his face when he pulled off the hood."  Errin
shuddered at the memory.  "It was horrible; he had an ugly
tattoo running down the side of his face."

	"Tattoo?"  Keili paled further at hearing this
information.  "Go on!" she urged.

	"The elf, he grabbed my head and, after awhile,
mumbled something like 'not the one'.  He then ordered the
orcs to release me from the stake.  I tried to attack him,
but he had the orcs pile on top of me to hold me down. 
Then wrote on this and kicked me out of their camp,
telling me to come back to town with it."  He pointed at
the parchment on the table.

	Raeni grabbed the scroll and started unrolling it. 
Suddenly, she recoiled as if it had bit her and dropped
the paper in disgust.  The young sorceress hissed, "It's
human skin."  She didn't notice Keili's expectant nod. 
Raeni then wiped her hands on a towel that she summoned,
burning the towel on the spot with a quickly muttered,
"Oru."

	The parchment, which had fallen to the ground, had
words written in a dull, brownish ink.  The paper laid
flat on the ground displaying the message, "Bring the
other twin and the red-haired girl to Witch's Doom.  Or
the man dies."