#neotericwitch

“What do you mean gone? She can’t be gone. She must be on a gathering trip for Master Tarathil?” As his apprentice, Alyssana had been trusted with gathering reagents for their work plenty of times before now.

Isal shook his head, looking utterly forlorn. “No. She’s gone gone. She made me promise to give her a head start….” Atishavir could understand his loyalty to his twin sister, but this was horrible. A fourteen year old out alone in the Planasene? That wouldn’t be the end of the world, but where was Aly going that she’d left like this?! How long ago had she even left? Tish grabbed Isalasanda’s wrist without saying anything and half-dragged him with her towards the Keeper’s aravel.

Barely waiting after knocking, the young woman stuck her head inside. Deshanna was there with her daughter Imira, though their previous discussion was interrupted. “Yes, da’len?” Deshanna inquired, curious but not alarmed. Not yet. Tish couldn’t help but feel some amount of dread. She dragged her cousin inside with her and took a seat, resting her staff against the aravel wall.

“Keeper, Alyssana is missing. Or more accurately, she’s left.” Isal bowed his head wearing a look of shame while Atishavir spoke, his sister’s letter still clutched in his hands.

Deshanna’s brow furrowed and Imira turned to face the newcomers more fully. “What do you mean, left?” the Clan’s First demanded, fists clenching in her lavender skirts. Atishavir looked to Isal then, elbowing him gently.

The young man offered the letter with a slightly shaking hand. “She wrote this and, well, told me to hold onto it for her. It’s for our parents, and for you, Keeper.” It was clear to Tish that her cousin was slowly losing his hold on his calm. She felt for him, she did, but this could be really serious. If Alyssana got hurt or came across humans, she could die, and the risk to the Clan if any hostile humans decided to perhaps torture her for the location of her Clan? She never thought of herself as a doom and gloom type person, but Atishavir’s paranoia was beginning to run away with her.

Deshanna took the letter and held it open so both she and her daughter could read it. Halfway through they were both shaking their heads and growing clearly concerned. Deshanna sat back and refolded the letter with precision, glaring a little at Imira. “Ma’len, can you decipher where Alyssana discovered such an idea?” It was clear a fight could break out if anyone said the wrong thing.

“It was that shem Bard,” Isal said, voice unsteady, while tears began to roll down his cheeks. “Two years ago, the one we captured because she got too close.” Though it probably didn’t help matters that their own First had left the Clan when she was younger and didn’t come back for ten years; no one said it though.

“I should have known, I should have seen. Alyssana’s always....raaah.” Imira slammed her fist into the wall of the aravel, making Tish’s staff slip just a tad and earning another reproachful look from Deshanna.

Atishavir bit her lip, looking between her mentors and her cousin. The Keeper laid a gentle hand on her First’s arm. “Now, da’len, when did your sister leave?”

“Did she even return from her wood gathering for Master Tarathil?” Imira asked drily, a tad resigned and knowing. If she were to run away and had the freedom of being the Craftmaster’s apprentice, she would time her departure with a foray into the forest.

Isal merely shook his head, trying hard not to be a loud crier even as tears came faster down his face. Atishavir’s brow furrowed as she observed her cousin, but she couldn’t comfort him just yet. She was here, had brought him here, in her duties as Second of the Clan. After the Keeper and her First had decided on a plan of action, then she could take him back to the family aravel and give him a good hug.

The silence stretched on uncomfortably, broken by Isalasanda’s sniffles while Deshanna quietly conversed with her daughter. Suddenly it was too much for the young hunter in training and he broke the silence with a hiccup-interrupted outburst. “Am-am I going-g-g to be k-k-kicked out-t tooooo? *hic* Forrr k-k-keeping Al-l-ly’s s-secret?”

“What?” “Da’len...” “Of course not!” Tish, Deshanna, and Imira respectively replied at once, in a hurry. Isal was practically a puddle of tears and covered his face in shame.

Deshanna gave her Second an authoritative look. “Go fetch Adahlen and Elrian, Atishavir, if they are still in camp.” Tish rose from her kneeling position in a swift, single motion, filled with purpose. Before she left the Keeper’s aravel she looked back at poor Isal and saw Imira gather the fourteen year old into her arms, making soothing noises.