The Clan of Outcasts [Season 3]

Part 3: "Unsettled Currents"

The Harbor (East)

Three Years Ago....

"Hail, King Jaran!"

"Good health to Your Majesty!"

Jaran nodded and acknowledged the salutations from Realmish citizens--My subjects, he thought to himself--as the carriage pulled through the Harbor. The docks were full, and the streets were busy with repair work, new buildings, and shipments that would no doubt translate into increased revenue for The Realm. He glanced at the old, bearded man sitting across from him.

"I see now why you recommended that I do this, Korsan," he said. "It is indeed helpful for me to see all the progress being made in the Realm, now that I am King, and will be responsible for the well-being of everybody within its boundaries."

A splash of water landed on his sleeve, and Jaran glanced up, out of habit. What few clouds dotted the sky were white and wispy--nothing that would carry rain. He heard several gasps and the laughter of children, and glanced to the side.

A girl danced in the middle of the square, surrounded by buildings and people. She wore a blue dress, and her dark braid swung around her shoulders as she twirled and skipped. Her hands twisted, and a glittering rainbow seemed to splinter off from it.

Jaran leaned forward, a humming building under his fingertips as he detected the source of the rainbow spinning around the girl's hands: a stream of water wrapped around her like a ribbon, twisting and spraying in time with her movements. Jaran called for the carriage to halt so he could watch more of this Gifted water-dancer. She finished her performance with a huge burst of droplets that soaked only the people nearest her, but nobody minded. It was a warm day, and the spray felt nothing short of refreshing.

The crowd dispersed, and the water-dancer slipped away. Jaran sighed and signaled the carriage onward.

"That was fascinating," he mused to the Mage. "I'm glad all these Gifted people are finding their place in the community. My father did his best to implement his plans for integration, but there was too much unknown about the Gifts--and then, thanks to Shadows like Troy, that fear was exacerbated and manipulated into outright animosity." Jaran wagged his head, well recalling how it felt to be on the receiving end of such persecution.

Korsan fingered his talisman, nodding as if he could read Jaran's mind. "Yet it was those very experiences at the hands of enemies that equipped you to be the leader The Realm needed, one who would understand the Gifted people enough to not just use them, but allow them to thrive."

Jaran let his gaze wander over the city as the carriage took a turn away from the docks and toward the thick trees of the Forest. He hoped Azelie had remembered to send word to Velora that he'd be coming...

A flash of blue caught his gaze. "Speaking of thriving..." he murmured. He quickly raised his hand. "Stop the carriage!" he called to the driver.

The man obeyed, and Korsan said nothing, merely watched the young king as his sage eyes twinkled. "Have you seen something, sire?"

Jaran stepped down from the carriage and picked his way along the buildings. "Indeed, I have."

He followed the flash of blue and the sound of footsteps around corners, between buildings crammed together and stacked atop one another so closely, it was merely a matter of stepping from one roof to the next, or taking a narrow flight of stairs up to the next "lane" in front of a few doorways on the next level. He recognized the water-dancer from earlier, but what was she doing over here?

He followed the sound until he came to the farthest corner of this block of buildings, so far from the middle of the city that he couldn't even hear any sounds from the marketplace, and furthermore he could see the tops of some of the outermost trees. He arrived in a cramped lane with only one doorway. Inside, he could see a pile of cloth scraps, a short table that looked to be the hacked-off corner of a larger one, and a single, mismatched stool. Upon the table stood a large jar full of coins. He wondered how much a girl of her skill would make, dancing in the square every day.