The Silencing of Esteria

Chapter 23

After about half an hour of his mother intermittently screaming at him and crying on his shoulder, Toland managed to get to bed and collapsed into it, asleep almost as soon as he hit the covers.

When he awoke, he was confused by a swaying green light in front of his eyes.

He sat up, every muscle in his body screaming at him not to, but he forced himself to turn. Somehow, the linuri was still there.

Toland took a moment to stare at it, aghast.

He sat up fully and the linuri came to rest on the bed in front of him, changing colour to a bright yellow.

"Hi," Toland ventured, but it didn't respond.

Slowly he reached out a hand, index finger extended. It didn't react and he made contact with it, the light flowing around his hand like mist but otherwise offering no resistance or hint at a physical body in the middle of the light.

"Why are you here?" he asked, not expecting an answer.

The linuri slowly faded back to its original shade of green and Toland stood up, not needing to dress, and began walking out of his room.

He headed downstairs, the fae creature floating along behind him, to find his father sat at their table, absently carving into a piece of wood with a large knife.

"Morning," Toland said.

His father looked at him and smiled, shaking his head and dropping the knife to the table.

"It hasn't been morning for four hours."

Toland looked out a window to realise that the sun was not rising, it was setting.

"What is that?" his father asked, jolting Toland back to their conversation.

Rin was pointing at the linuri, floating above Toland's shoulder.

"Well..." Toland began, "I'm pretty sure it's a linuri. It saved Kat and me from getting lost in the forest last night."

Rin stared at it in confusion.

"Linuri don't leave the forest. I mean, they shouldn't. Fae things don't leave the forest. All the stories say so."

"I know."

"First direwolves, now linuri, what's next? A damned dragon?"

Toland glared at him, and they both touched their charms to ward off the jinx. He then went over and fetched some bread and cured meat from the larder and sat opposite his father to eat it.

Toland stopped mid bite and frowned, "Why didn't you tell me she was Kalashunilir? You knew all this time, right? When did you find out?"

Rin sighed, "Kinic recognised her when he saw her, he told me that night. We guessed she came here to hide, from what we didn't know. We thought that the less people that new about her, the better. News like that spreads like wildfire. I can't imagine anyone in the village doesn't know already, and it's only been half a day. Forest Mother's blessings that we managed to keep it quiet until the snows came."

"You lied to me?"

"I'm your father. It's my job to keep you safe and happy. I didn't want you running around with that worry on your head. And if you had been thinking of her as a princess all this time, you might not have ended up as close as you are."

"We aren't that close."

Rin raised an eyebrow.

"We aren't!" Toland insisted.

The door opened and Ophelia came in holing a basket of bread. She saw Toland and hopped over to him and kissed him on the top of the head.

"You slept all day, you must have been exhausted!" she said.

Toland shrugged.

"Is Katrina up yet"? she asked.

"Not yet," Rin replied, "Have you seen Fel by the way?"

"I have," Ophelia replied, turning and smiling at him wryly, "He was out with Sefela."

"Sefela?" Rin asked.

Ophelia nodded emphatically and headed through to the larder.

Rin turned to Toland, "What a week its been where Fel and Sefer being a thing is not the most surprising thing to happen."

Toland just shrugged.

They sat there for another half hour before Kat came down the stairs.

"Good afternoon," she said.

"Afternoon," Rin replied.

"For someone who doesn't get tired like we do, you sure slept a while," Toland said.

She raised an eyebrow at him but had no reply as she took a seat at the table.

"Would you like something to eat?" Toland asked.

"That would be most kind, thank you," she replied.

Toland stood up and headed back into the larder, picking out another few pieces of bread and meat and returned them to Kat.

Even with her fingers, she managed to eat with a refinement that bewildered Toland. Now that he knew what she was, he really couldn't believe he took her to be anything else.

"It seems as though your companion has decided to stay," she said, gesturing to the linuri.

Toland nodded.

"Is that a common occurrence?"

Toland shook his head.

"How strange, it would appear that magical creatures are drawn to you, Toland."

"Me? I don't think so, I'm not sure you can say that just from one linuri. And its because I was wearing a charm, not because of anything about me."

She shrugged and resumed eating.

The linuri floated its way across the table, swaying and spinning in the air.

Toland stood up and it flew back over to just above his shoulder. Hewatched it uncertainly for a moment, then headed off to complete his dailychores.